The owner of Oliver Garden reported dynamite earnings and the stock is leaping
The restaurant group reporters adjusted earnings per share of $0.88, higher than analyst estimates of $0.82 per share. Revenues missed ever so slightly at $1.71 billion against estimates of $1.72 billion.
Sales increased by 1.6% across all Darden restaurants, higher than an estimated 1.4% rise. Olive Garden saw a sales increase of 2% over the same quarter last year, much higher than estimates of a 1.4% bump.
Darden also increased their outlook for the full-year, raising earnings per share guidance to $3.87 to $3.97 for all of fiscal year 2017, the company had previously projected it to be $3.80 to $3.90 per share.
"We continued to gain market share and our same-restaurant sales growth outperformed the industry by a considerable margin," said CEO Gene Lee in a press release. "We also returned significant capital to shareholders in the form of our regular dividend and $196 million in share repurchases."
Following the news, shares of Darden were up just under 6% in pre-market trading at $65.00 per share, a $3.64 jump from Monday's close, as of 7:40 a.m. ET.