Darden Restaurants, Inc. (DRI – Analyst Report) is one of the largest casual dining restaurant operators. The company has been under pressure lately, as competition has made this sector a very tough one to be in for the short term. In order to boost the performance of its brands, the company is implementing a set of initiatives under its Brand Renaissance Plan.

Also, the company is busy reorganizing its segment structure. While in Jul 2014, the company sold one of its brands, Red Lobster, in fiscal fourth quarter 2015, the company began reporting through new segments. Also, last quarter, the board of directors of the company approved a strategic real estate plan to pursue a separation of a portion of the company’s real estate assets. Moreover, the company has laid down an aggressive cost management plan, under which it has been able to significantly reduce operating costs.

The company’s earnings have been strong over the past few quarters. Darden has delivered positive earnings surprises in three of the past four quarters while remaining in-line in one. This translates to an average positive earnings surprise of 9.42% for the trailing four quarters. Meanwhile, it missed revenue estimates in two of the trailing four quarters and beat the same in the other two.

However, investors should also note the recent earnings estimate revisions for DRI, as the consensus estimate has been mostly moving upwards. Currently, DRI has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) but that could change following Darden’s earnings report which was just released. We have highlighted some of the key stats from this just-revealed announcement below:

Earnings : DRI beats on earnings. Our consensus earnings estimate called for earnings per share of 58 cents and the company reported earnings of 68 cents per share.

Revenues : DRI reported revenues of $1.69 billion. It beat the consensus estimate of $1.68 billion.

Key Stats to Note : The company posted comps growth of 3.4% for fiscal first quarter 2016. All the brands posted positive comps in the quarter.