Investors Eat Up Darden's Q1 Results, Upbeat Outlook

Darden Restaurants, Inc. DRI reported strong results for the first quarter and boosted its EPS forecast for the fiscal year 2017.

The company reported net earnings of $110.2 million, or $0.87 a share, up from $86.4 million, or $0.67 a share, in the year-ago quarter. While profit represented 27.5 percent year-over-year growth, EPS grew nearly 30 percent.

Darden's sales advanced from $1.687 billion to $1.714 billion representing 1.6 percent increase from last year period. Its same-store sales grew 1.3 percent for the first quarter.

CEO Gene Lee opined, "We continued to gain market share and our same-restaurant sales growth outperformed the industry by a considerable margin. We also returned significant capital to shareholders in the form of our regular dividend and $196 million in share repurchases."

Moving ahead, Darden boosted its EPS forecast from $3.80-$3.90 to $3.87-$3.97 for fiscal year 2017. As far as same-store sales, the company reaffirmed its guidance of 1–2 percent growth.

The stock traded at $64.56, gaining $3.20, or 5.22 percent in Tuesday's pre-market session.