Darden Restaurants Q3 Profit Rises; Lifts FY15 Earnings Outlook - Quick Facts

(RTTNews) - Darden Restaurants, Inc. (DRI) reported third-quarter net income of $133.8 million or $1.05 per share, compared to $109.7 million or $0.82 per share for the year-ago quarter.

Earnings from continuing operations for the third quarter was $128.4 million or $1.01 per share, compared to $86.6 million or $0.65 per share in the prior year quarter.

Excluding items, adjusted earnings from continuing operations for the current quarter were $0.99 per share, up 39% from $0.71 per share in the third quarter of last year.

Total sales for the latest third quarter rose 6.9% to $1.73 billion from $1.62 billion in the comparable quarter last year.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to earn $0.84 per share on revenue of $1.72 billion for the third quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

Looking ahead to the fourth quarter, the company expects earnings from continuing operations in the range of $0.91 to $0.94 per share. Analysts currently expect earnings of $0.89 per share for the fourth quarter.

For fiscal 2015, the company now expects net earnings from continuing operations in the range of $1.50 -$1.53 per share and adjusted earnings from continuing operations to be between $2.45 and $2.48 per share. Previously, the company expected net earnings from continuing operations of $1.30 - $1.35 per share and adjusted earnings of $2.25 - $2.30 per share.

Analysts currently expect the company to earn $2.30 per share for the fiscal year 2015.

Further, Darden's Board of Directors declared a regular quarterly cash dividend of $0.55 per share on the Company's outstanding common stock.  The dividend is payable on May 1, 2015 to shareholders of record at the close of business on April 10, 2015.