Darden Restaurants Issues Guidance; Increases Quarterly Dividend

(RTTNews) - Darden Restaurants, Inc., (DRI) announced, for fiscal 2017, the company expects: same-restaurant sales growth of 1.0% to 2.0%; new unit openings of 24 to 28 restaurants; total capital spending of $310 to $350 million; and earnings per share of $3.80 to $3.90. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expect the company to report profit per share of $3.99.

The company reported that its fourth-quarter net earnings per share from continuing operations increased 19.6% to $1.10 and increased 8.9% from last year's adjusted net earnings per share on a 13-week basis. The fourth quarter of last year included an extra week of operations resulting in a 53 week fiscal 2015. On average, 23 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to report profit per share of $1.08 for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

Due to the impact of the extra week of operations included in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2015, total sales from continuing operations decreased 4.7% to $1.79 billion; excluding the impact of the extra week, total sales from continuing operations increased 2.1%. Same-restaurant sales increased 1.7% on a fiscal calendar basis. Analysts expected revenue of $1.81 billion for the quarter.

The Board of Darden increased the quarterly dividend to $0.56 per common share, which represents a 12% increase over the previous quarterly dividend. The quarterly dividend is payable on August 1, 2016 to shareholders of record on July 11, 2016.