Darden Restaurants revenue fell 28% in most recent quarter
Shares of Darden Restaurants, the parent company of Olive Garden, fell 28% in its most recent quarter. Yahoo Finance's Sibile Marcellus joins Akiko Fujita to discuss.
Video Transcript
AKIKO FUJITA: Shares of Darden Restaurants seeing a big pop in the session, up 8 and 1/2%, despite the company seeing net sales fall by nearly 30% during the most recent quarter. Sibile Marcellus is breaking down the numbers for us. So Sibile, what has investors so excited? A 30% drop seems quite significant.
SIBILE MARCELLUS: Well, it's the dividend. Olive Gardens' parent company, Darden Restaurants, is reinstating its dividend. It'll pay out $0.30 per share for this quarter's results. Now when you look at the financial picture of the company, now they reported their quarterly results and you look at revenue. It fell 20%. Same store sales in its fine dining business down 39%.
And to give you a sense of how much their business is hurting right now, for example, Olive Garden, which accounts for half of overall revenue for Darden Restaurants, they have a location in Times Square. It's the most profitable location in the chain. Well, because the coronavirus pandemic, they have seen their sales drop 94%. Now, on an average year, if there was no coronavirus pandemic, they'd be bringing in $15 million per year just at that one location in Times Square. Now, because the coronavirus pandemic, what they're seeing is that they're losing about $300,000 per week, and only bringing in about $18,000.
AKIKO FUJITA: Wow, that is a huge drop there. Thanks so much for that, Sibile. And just a reminder, a programming note. Sibile is going to be hosting the "2020: A Time for Change," our special, our regular special on Thursday night here. It starts at 4:30 eastern. Today she'll be speaking to New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez. That is coming up at 4:30 eastern right here on Yahoo Finance.
