Darden Restaurants Q4 Profit Down - Quick Facts

(RTTNews) - Darden Restaurants Inc. (DRI) said that its fourth-quarter net earnings dropped to $86.5 million, from $133.2 million in the same quarter last year. Quarterly net earnings per share declined to $0.65, from $1.01 in last year's fourth quarter. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to report earnings of $0.94 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

The company estimated that net earnings per share for the latest-quarter were adversely affected by approximately $0.19 due to legal, financial advisory and other costs related to implementation of the strategic action plan Darden announced in December 2013 and charges related to various asset impairments.

Earnings from continuing operations was $0.36 down from $0.59 in the year ago quarter.

Sales for the quarter was $1.650 billion, compared to $1.592 billion in the prior year.

Fourth quarter total sales from continuing and discontinued operations were $2.32 billion, which compared to $2.30 billion in the fourth quarter last year. Wall Street expected revenues of $2.33 billion.

Total sales for the fourth quarter of this year include sales of $1.65 billion from continuing operations and sales of $666.2 million from discontinued operations. Total sales in the fourth quarter of last year include sales of $1.59 billion from continuing operations and sales of $706.5 million from discontinued operations.

The increase in total sales for the fourth quarter of this year reflected the operation of 69 net new restaurants compared to the fourth quarter last year and same restaurant-sales increases for LongHorn Steakhouse and the Company's Specialty Restaurants, offset by same-restaurant sales declines for Olive Garden and Red Lobster.

Darden's Board declared a quarterly cash dividend of 55 cents per share on the Company's outstanding common stock. The dividend is payable on August 1, 2014 to shareholders of record at the close of business on July 10, 2014.