Investors Eat Up Darden's Q1 Results, Upbeat Outlook

Darden Restaurants, Inc. (NYSE: 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.