Darden Restaurants Stock Leads S&P Gainers as CEO Says Consumers Still Spending

Darden Restaurants (DRI) shares led S&P 500 gainers Thursday morning as its CEO said consumers are still spending at its establishments, outweighing fiscal 2025 third-quarter sales that came in weaker than expected.

The parent of Olive Garden and LongHorn Steakhouse posted adjusted earnings per share (EPS) of $2.80 on net sales of $3.16 billion. Analysts polled by Visible Alpha had projected $2.80 and $3.21 billion, respectively.

Darden said same-restaurant sales rose 0.7% overall, including up 0.6% at Oliver Garden and 2.6% at LongHorn. Analysts were looking for same-restaurant sales to grow by 1.74% overall, including 1.49% at Olive Garden and 5.01% at LongHorn.

Darden kept most of its full-year outlook intact, only narrowing its adjusted EPS projection to a range of $9.45 to $9.52 from the previous $9.40 to $9.60.

CEO Says Consumers ‘Likely to Keep Spending’

Despite the downbeat quarter of sales and worsening consumer sentiment, Darden CEO Rick Cardenas said the company continues to see consumers spending.

“People, even if they say they’re feeling less optimistic, we haven’t seen a huge correlation between that and dining out,” Cardenas said on Darden’s earnings call. “So changes in consumer sentiment haven’t necessarily translated to material changes in consumer spending. So I think as long as incomes are going up and outpacing inflation, I think they’re likely to keep spending.”

Also Thursday, the company said it is expanding its partnership with Uber (UBER), launching a pilot program of Uber Eats deliveries from 10 Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen locations.

Darden shares, which entered the day up roughly 9% over the past 12 months, were up more than 6% Thursday morning.

UPDATE—This article has been updated with the latest share price information and comments from Thursday’s earnings call.