The owner of Olive Garden reported dynamite earnings and the stock is leaping (DRI)

Darden Restaurants, the owner of various restaurant chains such as Olive Garden and Longhorn Steakhouse, reported higher than expected earnings and guidance for their first fiscal quarter of 2017 on Tuesday.

The restaurant group reported adjusted earnings per share of $0.88, higher than analyst estimates of $0.82 per share. Revenue missed ever so slightly at $1.71 billion against estimates of $1.72 billion.

Sales increased by 1.6% across all Darden restaurants, higher than the estimated 1.4% rise. Olive Garden saw a sales increase of 2% over the same quarter last year, much higher than estimate of a 1.4% bump.

Darden also increased its outlook for the full-year, raising earnings per share guidance to $3.87 to $3.97 for all of fiscal year 2017, the company had previously projected it to be $3.80 to $3.90 per share.

"We continued to gain market share and our same-restaurant sales growth outperformed the industry by a considerable margin," said CEO Gene Lee in a press release. "We also returned significant capital to shareholders in the form of our regular dividend and $196 million in share repurchases."

Following the news, shares of Darden were up just under 6% in pre-market trading at $65.00 per share, a $3.64 jump from Monday's close, as of 7:40 a.m. ET.

John Greenough

NOW WATCH: STIGLITZ: It makes me crazy that everyone gets this wrong about the economy

See Also:

• This is the single most powerful tool in Excel — and these courses can help you master it

• Hunting, fishing, and camping retailer Bass Pro Shops is buying Cabela's for $5.5 billion

• Nike beat on earnings, but an important measure of future sales whiffed

SEE ALSO: Behind the scenes of the most exciting event on the New York Stock Exchange