Darden Restaurants, Inc.(NYSE:DRI) reported fiscal Q4 earnings that missed analysts’ expectations while sales were in line with the Street view. DRI also announced a share buyback program of up to $700 million in shares. 

The operator of restaurants such as Olive Gardena and LongHorn Steakhouse said earnings in the quarter ended May 25 fell to $86.5 million or $0.65 per share from $133.2 million or $1.01 the year earlier. 

Excluding $0.19 in adverse effects from legal, financial advisory and other costs related to implementation of the strategic action plan the company announced in December 2013 and charges related to various asset impairments, earnings would have been $0.84 per share, missing the $0.94 average estimate from analysts polled by Capital IQ. 

Sales were slightly higher at $2.32 billion compared to the $2.3 billion consensus estimate. 

The company said it expects to receive $1.6 billion in net cash proceeds from the sale of Red Lobster, of which $1 billion will be used to retire outstanding debt. The remaining net proceeds of approximately $500 million to $600 million will be used on a new share repurchase program of up to $700 million. 

Darden said that due to adjustments related to the sale of Red Lobster, it will discuss its outlook at a conference call Friday at 08:30 a.m. E.T. 

DRI closed down 0.4% and shed another 0.2% in after-hours trade Thursday, trading near the mid-point of the 52-week range between $44.78 and $54.89. It was inactive in recent pre-market trade.