Olive Garden, Red Lobster owner Darden’s 4Q earnings tumble on charges, costs; revenue up

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FILE - This Thursday, Sept. 6, 2012, file photo, shows a Red Lobster restaurant in Hialeah, Fla. Darden\'s fiscal fourth-quarter profit dropped 35 percent, dragged down by charges and costs tied to its strategic plan to reshape the restaurant company.Its shares dropped more than 3 percent in premarket trading Friday June 20, 2014. (AP Photo/Alan Diaz, File)

ORLANDO, Fla. – Darden’s fiscal fourth-quarter profit dropped 35 per cent, dragged down by charges and costs tied to its strategic plan to reshape the restaurant company.

Its shares dropped more than 3 per cent in premarket trading.

The owner of Red Lobster, Oliver Garden and other restaurants earned $86.5 million, or 65 cents per share, for the three months ended May 25. A year earlier the Orlando, Florida-based company earned $133.2 million, or $1.01 per share.

Adjusted earnings were 84 cents per share. Analysts predicted 94 cents per share.

Darden is looking to sell Red Lobster to investment firm Golden Gate Capital in a proposed $2.1 billion deal. Starboard Value LP and Barington Capital Group LP have challenged Darden’s planned sale.

Darden Restaurants Inc.’s revenue rose slightly to $2.32 billion, just short of the $2.33 billion Wall Street predicted.

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