A takeout order from a Darden Restaurants Inc. Olive Garden location is being arranged for a photo in Tiskilwa, Illinois, USA
Daniel Acker | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Darden Restaurants reported Thursday that sales in the fourth quarter of fiscal year nearly returned to 2019 levels when states lifted restrictions on restaurants.
The company also released an outlook for fiscal 2022, forecasting its total revenue for the year before the pandemic.
The company’s shares lost less than 1% in pre-market trading.
Here’s what the company said, relative to Wall Street expectations, based on an analyst survey by Refinitiv:
- Earnings per share: $ 2.03 adjusted versus $ 1.79 expected
- Revenue: $ 2.28 billion versus $ 2.19 billion expected
Olive Garden’s parent company reported net income of $ 369 million, or $ 2.79 per share, for the fourth quarter, compared to a loss of $ 479.7 million, or $ 3.85 per share, a year earlier.
Without items, Darden earned $ 2.03 per share, beating the $ 1.79 per share that Refinitiv polled analysts had expected.
Net sales rose 79.5% to $ 2.28 billion, beating expectations of $ 2.19 billion. Across the company’s entire portfolio, sales in the same business increased 90.4% year-over-year and decreased only 0.5% year-over-year.
For fiscal 2022, Darden expects total revenue of $ 9.2 billion to $ 9.5 billion, up 5 to 8 percent from pre-pandemic levels, provided that essentially all locations can operate at full capacity. The company predicts revenue growth in the same business of 25% to 29% compared to fiscal 2021. It also expects diluted net earnings per share from continuing operations in a range of $ 7 to $ 7.50.
The forecast is in line with Wall Street expectations. Analysts are forecasting earnings of $ 7.21 per share for fiscal year 2022 on sales of $ 9.22 billion.
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