Olive Garden helps boost Darden's earnings

Darden Restaurants posted stronger-than-expected earnings with help from rising same-store sales at its Olive Garden chain.

Darden, which also operates other brands such as LongHorn Steakhouse, grew profits to $110.2 million, or 87 cents per share, from $86.4 million, or 67 cents per share, a year earlier. Analysts were looking for earnings of 82 cents.

The company reported a 1.6 percent increase in revenue to $1.71 billion. However, analysts expected $1.72 billion.

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