Darden Restaurants lifts sales forecast, beats quarterly estimates on casual dining demand

June 20 (Reuters) - Darden Restaurants (DRI.N), opens new tab forecast annual same-store sales above estimates after strong quarterly results on Friday, banking on demand driven by food delivery and advertising efforts at its casual dining chains such as Olive Garden.
Shares of the company rose about 3% in premarket trading after the company also announced a new $1 billion share repurchase program.
Casual dining and fast casual restaurant chains, including Olive Garden and Shake Shack (SHAK.N), opens new tab, have benefited from menu innovations and promotions to entice customers, offsetting the impact of consumers turning to home-cooked meals to save money.
Meanwhile, fast food chains including burger giant McDonald's (MCD.N), opens new tab, Starbucks (SBUX.O), opens new tab and Domino's Pizza (DPZ.O), opens new tab have been struggling with tepid demand.
Darden expects annual same-store sales to grow in the range of 2% to 3.5%, midpoint of which is above analysts' estimates of 2.64%, as per data compiled by LSEG.
Initiatives such as home deliveries with the help of Uber Direct and "buy one, take one" offerings at Olive Garden have further helped the restaurant chain operator.
Its consolidated same-store sales were up 4.6% in the quarter compared to a year ago, with Olive Garden sales rising 6.9%.
The company posted fourth-quarter sales of $3.27 billion, edging past estimates of $3.26 billion.
It logged adjusted profit of $2.98 per share for the quarter ended May 25, above estimates of $2.97 per share, owing to moderate price hikes and lower input costs.
However, the company forecast annual earnings per share between $10.50 and $10.70, compared with estimates of $10.75 per share.

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