Darden Restaurants (NYSE: DRI) stock traded 4.4 percent lower on Tuesday after the company reported fiscal first-quarter revenue that fell short of market expectations. U.S. same-store sales also came up well short of consensus analyst estimates.
Darden reported quarterly earnings per share of 99 cents, in line with analyst expectations. However, revenue of $1.936 billion came up just shy of consensus estimates of $1.931 billion.
Darden also reported same-store sales growth of only 1.7 percent, below consensus forecasts of 2.1 percent growth.
Key chain Olive Garden was particularly disappointing in the quarter. Olive Garden same-store sales grew only 1.9 percent compared to expectations of 2.5 percent growth. Bahama Breeze same-store sales growth of 1.2 percent also slightly missed analyst estimates of 1.3 percent growth.
Fortunately for Darden investors, LongHorn and Capital Grille both exceeded expectations in the first quarter. LongHorn same-store sales jumped 2.6 percent, while Capital Grille sales climbed 2 percent. Analysts had been expecting same-store sales growth of 2.2 percent and 1.7 percent, respectively.
Same-store sales for Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen, which Darden acquired for $780 million in March, were down 1.4 percent.
Looking ahead, Darden reiterated…
Click here to continue reading
Want to learn more about how to profit off the stock market? Or maybe you just want to be able to look sophisticated in front of your coworkers when they ask you what you are reading on your Kindle, and you’d prefer to tell them “Oh, I’m just reading a book about stock market analysis,” rather than the usual “Oh, I’m just looking at pics of my ex-girlfriend on Facebook.” For these reasons and more, check out my book, Beating Wall Street with Common Sense. I don’t have a degree in finance; I have a degree in neuroscience. You don’t have to predict what stocks will do if you can predict what traders will do and be one step ahead of them. I made a 400% return in the stock market over five years using only basic principles of psychology and common sense. Beating Wall Street with Common Sense is now available on Amazon, and tradingcommonsense.com is always available on your local internet!
