Daily US Earnings Estimates - 24th September 2026: COST, DRI

The two names read on different parts of the consumer tape, and the precedent is that they are often traded together as a spending read rather than as isolated single-stock events. Costco in this position has historically been judged less on the headline EPS line than on comparable sales, membership fee income, and renewal rates, and the stock's premium multiple has meant that in past episodes even in-line quarters with softening comps have produced outsized de-ratings relative to the size of the miss. Darden's prints have tended to turn on same-restaurant sales by concept and the mix between traffic and ticket, with the fine-dining segment watched as the discretionary tell. The distinction worth drawing is between a margin-driven miss and a demand-driven one: the former has typically faded faster, the latter reprices the forward estimates rather than just the quarter. The follow-ons are the calls themselves, where guidance commentary has mattered more than the print, and any read-across into restaurant and staples peers reporting in the same window.