Darden Restaurants (DRI) Falls 7.7% on Missed Earnings Estimates

We recently published 10 Stocks Losing Big Amid Market Boom. Darden Restaurants Inc. (NYSE:DRI) is one of the worst performers on Thursday.

Darden Restaurants fell by 7.69 percent on Thursday to close at $192.74 apiece as investors sold off positions after missing analyst earnings estimates for the first quarter of fiscal year 2026.

During the period, Darden Restaurants Inc. (NYSE:DRI) reported earnings per share of $1.97, missing analyst estimates of $2.

Net income, on the other hand, grew by 24 percent to $257.8 million from $207.2 million in the same period last year. Sales increased by 10.4 percent to $3.04 billion from $2.76 billion year-on-year, driven by a blended same-restaurant sales increase of 4.7 percent and sales from the acquisition of 103 Chuy’s Tex Mex (Chuy’s) restaurants and 22 net new restaurants.

“We had a strong start to the fiscal year with same-restaurant sales and earnings growth that exceeded our expectations,” said Darden Restaurants Inc. (NYSE:DRI) President and CEO Rick Cardenas.

“The strength of our results is a testament to the power of our strategy. Across our portfolio, our restaurant teams remained focused on being brilliant with the basics and, at the Darden level, we continued to leverage our four competitive advantages to position our brands for long-term success. Our winning strategy is enabling us to grow sales and market share, while making meaningful investments in our business and returning capital to our shareholders,” he noted.

Darden Restaurants Inc. (NYSE:DRI) owns and operates brands such as Olive Garden and LongHorn Steakhouse, among others.

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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.