Darden Restaurants Inc ( DRI ) shares are trading higher in premarket on Thursday.

The company reported third-quarter revenue growth of 6.2% year-on-year to $3.158 billion, missing the analyst consensus estimate of $3.215 billion.

The sales growth was driven by a blended same-restaurant sales increase of 0.7% and sales from the acquisition of 103 Chuy’s restaurants and 40 net new restaurants.

Darden clocked an operating margin of 13.2%, and the operating income rose 7.9% to $418.2 million.

Adjusted EPS of $2.80 beat the consensus estimate of $2.79.

Darden generated an operating cash flow of $1.25 billion for the nine months. It held $238.7 million in cash and equivalents as of February 23, 2025.

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Inventories at the end of third quarter were $324.6 million.

Darden’s Board of Directors declared a quarterly cash dividend of $1.40 per share, payable on May 1, to shareholders of record on April 10.

During the quarter, the company repurchased approximately 0.3 million shares of its common stock for a total of $53 million. As of the third quarter end, the company had approximately $548 million remaining under the current $1 billion repurchase authorization.

Guidance: Darden Restaurants ( DRI ) continues to see FY25 sales of about of $12.1 billion with an estimate of $12.092 billion. Same-restaurant sales growth of approximately 1.5%.

The company expects FY25 adjusted EPS of $9.45 – $9.52 (prior view $9.40 – $9.60) against an estimate of $9.48.

Price Action: DRI shares traded higher by 1.51% at $191.00 in premarket at last check Thursday.

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