Darden Restaurants: Fiscal 1Q Earnings Snapshot

Darden Restaurants Inc. (DRI) on Thursday reported fiscal first-quarter profit of $166.2 million.

On a per-share basis, the Orlando, Florida-based company said it had profit of $1.32. Earnings, adjusted to account for discontinued operations, were $1.34 per share.

The results topped Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of 11 analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of $1.23 per share.

The owner of Olive Garden and other chain restaurants posted revenue of $2.06 billion in the period, which also beat Street forecasts. Eight analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $2.03 billion.

Darden Restaurants expects full-year earnings to be $5.52 to $5.65 per share.

Darden Restaurants shares have climbed 23 percent since the beginning of the year, while the Standard & Poor's 500 index has risen almost 9 percent.

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This story was generated by Automated Insights using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on DRI at https://www.zacks.com/ap/DRI