Darden Restaurants Shares Slide 10% After Q1 Miss, Maintains Guidance

Core Insights - Darden Restaurants, Inc. shares declined by 10% following fiscal first-quarter results that fell short of analyst expectations, despite maintaining full-year guidance that was slightly above consensus estimates [1] Financial Performance - Adjusted earnings for the quarter ending August 24 were reported at $1.97 per share, below the expected $2.00 [1] - Revenue increased by 10.4% to $3 billion, but did not meet the forecast of $3.04 billion [1] Same-Restaurant Sales - Same-restaurant sales rose by 4.7% across Darden's brands, with Olive Garden leading at a 5.9% increase and LongHorn Steakhouse at 5.5% [2] - The Fine Dining segment experienced a slight decline of 0.2%, while the Other Business segment, which includes the recently acquired Chuy's Tex Mex, saw a growth of 3.3% [2] Future Guidance - Management reaffirmed full-year earnings guidance of $10.50 to $10.70 per share, with the high end slightly above the consensus estimate of $10.69 [2] - For fiscal 2026, Darden projected sales growth of 7.5% to 8.5%, including approximately 2% from an extra 53rd week, same-restaurant sales growth of 2.5% to 3.5%, and around 65 new restaurant openings [3]