Earnings Beat, Dividend Hike, New Buyback: Darden Restaurants' Q4 Highlights - Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI)

Darden Restaurants Inc DRI reported fourth-quarter FY22 sales growth of 14.2% year-on-year to $2.60 billion, beating the consensus of $2.54 billion.
Same-restaurant sales increased 11.7% versus last year.
Olive Garden sales increased 8.2%, LongHorn Steakhouse climbed 13.2%, and Fine Dining jumped 40.7%.
Darden clocked an operating margin of 13%, and the operating income rose 4.7% to $338.2 million. EBITDA was $431.2 million.
EPS of $2.24 beat the consensus of $2.21.
Darden generated an operating cash flow of $1.3 billion for FY22, and the cash and equivalents stood at $420.6 million as of May 29, 2022.
Dividend: Darden's Board declared a quarterly cash dividend of $1.21 per share, up 10% from Q3 FY22. The dividend is payable on August 1, 2022, to shareholders of record on July 8, 2022.
Buyback: Darden's Board authorized a new share repurchase program of up to $1 billion of its outstanding common stock.
Guidance: Darden sees FY23 sales of $10.2 billion - $10.4 billion versus the consensus of $10.22 billion.
It expects FY23 EPS of $7.40 - $8.00 versus the consensus of $8.15.
The restaurant chain expects same-restaurant sales growth of 4%-6% and 55 - 60 new restaurant openings.
Price Action: DRI shares are trading higher by 1.82% at $117.21 in premarket on the last check Thursday.
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