When Darden Restaurants -- the company behind Olive Garden, Bahama Breeze, LongHorn Steakhouse and more -- reported first quarter earnings results Tuesday morning, the results were better than expected: earnings per share beat the Wall Street estimate by six cents, an increase in same-store sales proved a welcoming outlier among its food industry peers, and the company raised its full-year earnings outlook. And yet, shares of Darden failed to maintain their early-morning 4% pop during Tuesday trading, closing the day with just an 0.59% gain -- a meager increase that appears to have been driven by the Darden CEO's comments about challenges in the broader restaurant space.
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