Darden Restaurants Guides Q1 Results Above View - Quick Facts

(RTTNews) - While reporting financial results for the third quarter on Thursday, Darden Restaurants, Inc., (DRI) said it is providing a financial outlook for the first quarter instead of its usual practice of providing an annual outlook, due to uncertainty surrounding future business performance stemming from COVID-19.

For the first quarter, the company expects net earnings from continuing operations to be greater than or equal to $0.00 per share on total sales of approximately 70% of prior year sales.

On average, analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expect the company to report a loss of $0.35 per share on a sales decline to 25.1 percent to $1.6 billion for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

Additionally, the Company expects to open 35 to 40 net new restaurants and have total capital spending of $250 million to $300 million for the full year.