Darden Restaurants (DRI) shares led S&P 500 gainers Thursday morning as its CEO said consumers are still spending at its establishments, outweighing fiscal 2025 third-quarter sales that came in weaker than expected.

The parent of Olive Garden and LongHorn Steakhouse posted adjusted 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:earnings per share (EPS) of $2.80 on net sales of $3.16 billion. Analysts polled by Visible Alpha had projected $2.80 and $3.21 bill🥀ion, respe🐽ctively.

Darden said same-restaurant sales rose 0.7% overall, including up 0.6% at Oliver Garden and 2.6% at LongHorn. Analysts were lookiꦏng for same-restaurant sales to grow by 1.74% overall, including 1.49% at Olive Garden and 5.01% a🎃t LongHorn.

Darden kept most of its full-year outlook intact, only narrowing its adjusted EPS projection to a range of $9.45 to $9.52 from the previous $9.40 to $9.60.

CEO Says Consumers 'Likely to Keep Spending'

Despite the downbeat quarter of sales and 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:worsening consumer sentiment, Darden CEO Rick Cardenas said the company continues to see consumer🏅s spending.

"People, even if they say they're feeling less optimistic, we haven't seen a huge correlation between that and dining out," Cardenas said on Darden's earnings call. "So changes in consumer sentiment haven't necessarily translated to material changes in consumer spending. So I think as long as incomes are going up and outpacing inflation, I think they're likely to keep spending."

Also Thursday, the company said it is expanding its partnership with Uber (UBER), launching a pilot program of Uber Eats deliveries from 10 Cheddar's Scratch Kitchen locations.

Darden shares, which entered the day u♔p roughly 9% over the past 12 months, were up more than 6% Thursday morning.

UPDATE—This article has been updated with the latest share price information and comments from Thursday's earnings call.