ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) _ Darden Restaurants Inc. (DRI) on Thursday reported fiscal fourth-quarter net income of $368.5 million, after reporting a loss in the same period a year earlier.

The Orlando, Florida-based company said it had profit of $2.78 per share. Earnings, adjusted for pretax gains, came to $2.03 per share.

The results topped Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of 13 analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of $1.82 per share.

The owner of Olive Garden and other chain restaurants posted revenue of $2.28 billion in the period, also exceeding Street forecasts. Eleven analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $2.2 billion.

For the year, the company reported net income of $629.3 million, or $4.77 per share, swinging to a profit in the period. Revenue was reported as $7.2 billion.

Darden Restaurants expects full-year earnings to be $7 to $7.50 per share, with revenue in the range of $9.2 billion to $9.5 billion.

Darden Restaurants shares have risen 14% since the beginning of the year, while the S&P's 500 index has increased 13%.

This story was generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on DRI at https://www.zacks.com/ap/DRI

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