Your Earnings Playbook For The Restaurant Sector

Darden Restaurants, Inc. DRI kicked off restaurant earnings season this week with a big bottom-line beat. After initially spiking as high as $63.32 on the news, Darden shares have settled back down to around $61.65 following the beat.

Perhaps the most impressive part of Darden’s earnings beat is its timing. Other restaurant companies have been struggling with weak traffic and food price deflation. Darden CEO Eugene Lee, Jr. dismissed these concerns in the company’s earnings call.

“I just have a hard time, when you think about our brands, that, where they’re experiential, that people are trading out and staying home because they can get their groceries a little bit cheaper,” he said. “I’m just having a hard time with that.”

Related Link: Darden Restaurants Is Cautious On Industry, Confident In Its Own Stores

Investors will now be watching to see if other restaurant stocks will be able to live up to Darden’s high earnings bar.

Here’s a look at when other restaurants are expected to release earnings and how each has performed in recent quarters.

• Bloomin’ Brands Inc BLMN is expected to report Q3 earnings on November 1. The company has missed consensus sales expectations six quarters in a row.
• Kona Grill Inc KONA is expected to report Q3 earnings on October 31. The company hasn’t recorded an earnings beat in the past six quarters.
• Del Frisco’s Restaurant Group Inc. DFRG has confirmed Q3 earnings for October 14 before the market open. The company has delivered in-line earnings in three of the past four quarters.
• Ruby Tuesday, Inc. RT has confirmed quarterly earnings for October 6 after the market close. The company has missed earnings expectations in three of the past four quarters.
• BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. BJRI is expected to report Q3 earnings on October 20. The company missed on earnings last quarter for the first time in the last 10 quarters.
• Bravo Brio Restaurant Group, Inc. BBRG is expected to report Q3 earnings on November 3. The company is hoping to bounce back from last quarter’s earnings miss.