ORLANDO, Fla., Sept. 24, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Darden Restaurants, Inc. (NYSE:DRI) today reported its financial results for the first quarter ended August 30, 2026.

First Quarter 2027 Financial Highlights

• Total sales increased 5.1% to $3.2 billion.
• Blended same-restaurant sales¹ for the quarter increased 3.1% on a fiscal calendar basis and increased 3.2% on a comparable calendar basis. 

• Reported diluted net earnings per share from continuing operations were $2.05, an increase of 4.1% from last year’s adjusted diluted net earnings per share from continuing operations² 
• The Company repurchased $222.3 million³ of its outstanding common stock

“The first quarter was a solid start to our fiscal year with each of our segments delivering positive same-restaurant sales,” said Darden President & CEO Rick Cardenas. “The performance across our portfolio reinforces the importance of having distinctive brands, each with a clear strategy, supported by Darden’s scale and other competitive advantages. Looking ahead, our focus remains the same: operate our restaurants at a high level, strengthen guest loyalty, invest in our people and brands, and deploy capital in ways that support long-term shareholder value.”

Segment Performance
Segment profit represents sales, less costs for food and beverage, restaurant labor, restaurant expenses and marketing expenses. Segment profit excludes non-cash real estate related expenses.

Dividend Declared
Darden’s Board of Directors declared a quarterly cash dividend of $1.62 per share on the Company’s outstanding common stock. The dividend is payable on November 2, 2026 to shareholders of record at the close of business on October 9, 2026.

Share Repurchase Program
During the quarter, the Company repurchased approximately 1.1 million shares of its common stock for a total of $222.3 million³. As of the end of the fiscal first quarter, the Company had $1.3 billion remaining under the current $1.5 billion repurchase authorization.

Fiscal 2027 Financial Outlook
The Company reaffirmed all aspects of its full year financial outlook for fiscal 2027, culminating in diluted net earnings per share from continuing operations of $11.10 to $11.35.

Investor Conference Call
The Company will host a conference call today, Thursday, September 24, 2026 at 8:30 am ET to review its recent financial performance, which will be available via a live webcast through the Company’s Investor Relations website at investor.darden.com.  Please allow extra time prior to the call to visit the site and download any software required to listen to the webcast. Supplemental materials will be available on the Investor Relations website prior to the start of the conference call. For those who are unable to listen to the live broadcast, a replay will be available shortly after the call.

About Darden
Darden is a full-service restaurant company featuring a portfolio of differentiated brands that include Olive Garden, LongHorn Steakhouse, Yard House, Ruth’s Chris Steak House, Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen, The Capital Grille, Chuy’s, Seasons 52, and Eddie V’s. For more information, please visit www.darden.com.

Information About Forward-Looking Statements
Forward-looking statements in this communication regarding our expected earnings performance and all other statements that are not historical facts, including without limitation statements concerning our future economic performance, are made under the Safe Harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are generally identified by the use of forward-looking terminology, including the terms “may,” “will,” “expect,” “intend,” “focus,” “anticipate,” “continue,” “could,” “estimate,” “project,” “believe,” “plan,” “outlook,” “seek,” or similar expressions. Any forward-looking statements speak only as of the date on which such statements are first made, and we undertake no obligation to update such statements to reflect events or circumstances arising after such date. We wish to caution investors not to place undue reliance on any such forward-looking statements. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to materially differ from those anticipated in the statements. The most significant of these uncertainties are described in Darden’s Form 10-K, Form 10-Q, and Form 8-K reports. These risks and uncertainties include: a failure to address cost pressures and a failure to effectively deliver cost management activities and achieve some economies of scale in purchasing, certain economic and business factors, and their impacts on the restaurant industry, and other general macroeconomic factors including unemployment, energy prices, tariffs and interest rates, the inability to hire, train, reward, and retain restaurant team members and determine and maintain adequate staffing, a failure to recruit, develop, and retain effective leaders or the loss or shortage of personnel with key capacities and skills that could impact our strategic direction, increased labor and insurance costs, health concerns arising from food-related pandemics, outbreaks of flu, viruses, or other diseases, food safety and food-borne illness concerns, insufficient guest or employee facing technology or a failure to maintain a continuous and secure cyber network, compliance with privacy and data protection laws and risks of failures or breaches of our data protection systems,  risks relating to public policy changes and federal, state and local regulation of our business, intense competition, changing consumer preferences, an inability or failure to recognize, respond to, and effectively manage the accelerated impact of social media, a failure to identify and execute innovative marketing and guest relationship tactics, ineffective or improper use of other marketing initiatives, and increased advertising and marketing costs, climate change, adverse weather conditions, and natural disasters, long-term and non-cancelable property leases, inability or failure to execute a business continuity plan following a major natural disaster, shortages, delays, or interruptions in the delivery of food and other products and services from our third-party vendors and suppliers, failure to drive profitable sales growth, a lack of availability of suitable locations for new restaurants or a decline in the quality of locations of our current restaurants, higher-than-anticipated costs associated with the opening of new restaurants or with the closing, relocating, or remodeling of existing restaurants, risks associated with doing business with franchisees, licensees, and vendors in foreign markets, volatility in the market value of derivatives, volatility in the U.S. equity markets affecting our ability to efficiently hedge exposures, failure to protect our intellectual property, our reporting on environmental, social, and governance matters or our sustainability ratings, litigation, unfavorable publicity or failure to respond effectively to adverse publicity, disruptions in the financial and credit markets, impairment of the carrying value of our goodwill or other intangible assets, changes in tax laws or unanticipated tax liabilities, failure of our internal controls over financial reporting and future changes in accounting standards, and other factors and uncertainties discussed from time to time in reports filed by Darden with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Non-GAAP Information
The information in this press release includes financial information determined by methods other than in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (“GAAP”), such as adjusted diluted net earnings per share from continuing operations. The Company’s management uses these non-GAAP measures in its analysis of the Company’s performance. The Company believes that the presentation of certain non-GAAP measures provides useful supplemental information that is essential to a proper understanding of the operating results of the Company’s businesses. These non-GAAP disclosures should not be viewed as a substitute for operating results determined in accordance with GAAP, nor are they necessarily comparable to non-GAAP performance measures that may be presented by other companies. Reconciliations of these non-GAAP measures are included in this release.

(Analysts) Courtney Aquilla, (407) 245-5054; (Media) Rich Jeffers, (407) 245-4189

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SOURCE Darden Restaurants, Inc.: Financial