Darden Reaffirms FY20 Outlook; Declares Qtly Dividend - Quick Facts

(RTTNews) - While reporting financial results for the second quarter on Thursday, Darden Restaurants, Inc. (DRI) again reaffirmed its financial outlook for the full-year 2020, which is a 53-week fiscal year. The outlook includes the impact of the additional week.

For fiscal 2020, the company continues to project net earnings from continuing operations in a range of $6.30 to $6.45 per share. This includes about $0.15 related to the additional 53rd week.

Total sales growth for the year is still forecast in the range of 5.3 to 6.3 percent, including about 2 percent growth related to the 53rd week. Same-restaurant sales growth for the year is also expected in a range of 1.0 to 2.0 percent.

On average, analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expect the company to report earnings of $6.40 per share on sales growth of 6.1 percent to $9.03 billion for the year. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

Darden's Board of Directors also declared a regular quarterly cash dividend of $0.88 on the Company's outstanding common stock, payable on February 3, 2020 to shareholders of record at the close of business on January 10, 2020.