DRI Reports Q4

Darden Restaurants (NYSE: DRI ) held its fourth-quarter earnings conference call on Thursday.

Below is the complete transcript from the call.

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The full earnings call is available at Summary Darden Restaurants reported a strong fourth quarter, with total sales of $3.7 billion, marking a 13.7% increase year-over-year, driven by same restaurant sales growth of 4.6% and the addition of 43 net new restaurants.

Key brands like Olive Garden, Longhorn, and Yardhouse performed exceptionally well, with Longhorn achieving a 9.5% same restaurant sales growth.

Olive Garden's lighter portions menu and Longhorn's viral social media campaign contributed to these results.

The company plans to open 75 to 80 new restaurants in fiscal 2027 and execute 11 Bahama Breeze conversions, aiming for a 2.5% to 3.5% same restaurant sales growth.

Additionally, Darden is expanding internationally with new franchise locations in countries like Spain, India, and Canada.

Darden highlighted its strategic advantages, including a strong supply chain and technology infrastructure, allowing cost efficiencies and operational excellence across its portfolio.

The company reported strong financial metrics for fiscal 2026, with total sales surpassing $13 billion for the first time and adjusted diluted net earnings per share increasing by 11.4% to $10.64.

Full Transcript OPERATOR Greetings and welcome to the Darden Fiscal Year 2026 fourth quarter earnings call.

Your lines have been placed in the listen-only mode until the question and answer session.

To ask a question, you may press Star one on your touchtone phone.

This conference is being recorded, and if you have any objections, you may disconnect at this time.

I will now turn the call over to Ms.

Corne Aquila.

Thank you.

You may begin.

Corne Aquila Thank you, Kevin.

Good morning and thank you for participating on today's call.

Joining me are Rick Cardenas, Darden's President and CEO, and Raj Vennam, CFO.

As a reminder, comments made during this call will include forward-looking statements as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.

These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from our expectations and projections.

Those risks are described in the company's press release, which was distributed this morning, and in its filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A supplemental materials presentation containing information shared on today's call is available on the Financials tab in the Investors section of our website.

Today's discussion includes certain non-GAAP measurements, and reconciliations of these measurements are included in the presentation.

Looking ahead, we plan to release fiscal 2027 first quarter earnings on Thursday, September 24th, before the market opens, followed by a conference call.

During today's call, all references to industry results refer to the Black Box Intelligence Casual Dining Benchmark Exclusive.

Including Darden, Black Box Intelligence updated its benchmarks in early May following changes to the underlying brand set.

This restatement had an outsized impact on the casual dining benchmarks.

The change moved the average benchmarks up by 150 basis points for same restaurant sales and 25 basis points for same restaurant guest counts.

Incorporating this restatement, average same restaurant sales for the industry increased 1.4% and average same restaurant guest counts decreased 1.8% during our fourth quarter.

This morning we will share some brief remarks on the quarter and full year, as well as the details of our financial results, discuss the power of Darden's portfolio, and share our fiscal 2027 financial outlook.

Now I will turn the call over to Rick.

Rick Cardenas (President and CEO) Thank you, Courtney.