Darden (DRI) Falls 6% Premarket After $1.97 EPS Miss; Revenue $3.04B, Same‑Store Sales +4.7% Led by Olive Garden +5.9%

Darden Restaurants (NYSE: DRI), the company behind Olive Garden and LongHorn Steakhouse, posted a quarter that split the difference: sales beat, earnings missed, and guidance was tweaked only on the top line. Shares slipped about 6% in premarket trading after the report.

On the headline numbers, adjusted earnings came in at $1.97 per share versus the roughly $2.00 analysts were expecting. Total revenue hit $3.04 billion, essentially matching expectations. On a GAAP basis, Darden reported net income of $257.8 million, or $2.19 per share, up from a year earlier; the adjusted figure excludes proceeds from the sale of Canadian Olive Garden locations, expenses tied to restaurant closures and other one-offs.

Top-line growth got a hand from last year's acquisition of Chuy's Tex Mex, with net sales rising 10.4%. Same-store sales - the metric that strips out new units and buyouts - increased 4.7% for the quarter. That number doesn't yet include Chuy's and omits Bahama Breeze, which Darden expects to sell off before the fiscal year ends.

Breaking down the brands: Olive Garden led the charge with same-store sales up 5.9% (the chain supplies more than 40% of Darden's revenue). LongHorn posted a 5.5% comp gain. The "other" segment - Cheddar's Scratch Kitchen and Yard House - rose 3.3%. Even the company's fine-dining group, which had been a trouble spot, nearly steadied with just a 0.2% same-store sales decline versus an expected 0.9% drop.

Looking ahead, Darden nudged up its fiscal 2026 revenue projection to a 7.5%-8.5% growth range from the prior 7%-8%. Adjusted earnings guidance was left unchanged at a $10.50-$10.70 per share band.

What this means for traders: the quarter shows clear strength in core casual-dining concepts and a tangible benefit from the Chuy's buy, but the miss on adjusted EPS and the steady earnings guide suggest margins or one-time charges ate into profitability. The market's early reaction - that 6% dip - implies expectations were higher on the bottom line than management delivered.

Short version: strong comps, an acquisition lifting revenue, an EPS miss that mattered, and a modest upward tweak to the sales outlook. So, who's doing the heavy lifting this quarter? Olive Garden - again - and the new Chuy's units.