Raj Vennam
Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer at Darden Restaurants
Thank you, Rick, and good morning, everyone. Total sales for the fourth quarter were $2.8 billion, 6.4% higher than last year, driven by same-restaurant sales growth of 4% and the addition of 47 net-new restaurants. Our same-restaurant sales for the quarter outpaced the industry by 470 basis points, and same restaurant guest counts exceeded the industry by 540 basis points.
Diluted net earnings per share from continuing operations increased 15.2% from last year to $2.58. We generated $472 million in EBITDA and returned $183 million to shareholders.
Total inflation slowed meaningfully this quarter to 4.4%, 270 basis points less than the third quarter, while the rate of pricing decreased from last quarter to 5.9%.
Turning to the fourth quarter P&L compared to last year, food and beverage expenses were 30 basis points better driven by pricing above commodities inflation of roughly 3%. Chicken and seafood experienced deflation this quarter, helping offset high single-digit beef and beat inflation.
Restaurant labor was 40 basis points better, driven by productivity improvements. Restaurant expenses were 30 basis points better than last year, driven by sales leverage. Marketing expense was 1% of sales, consistent with our expectations and 30 basis points higher than last year. This all resulted in restaurant-level EBITDA improving 80 basis points to 20.7%.
Our general and administrative expenses was 40 basis points higher than last year, driven by the timing of our incentive compensation accrual as well as unfavorable year-over-year mark-to-market expense on our deferred compensation. Due to the way we hedge this expense, this unfavorability is largely offset on the tax line. Our effective tax rate for the quarter was 10.4%, and we generated $316 million in earnings from continuing operations, which was 11.4% of sales.
Looking at our segments, Olive Garden, LongHorn and our other segment increased same-restaurant sales by 4.4%, 7.1% and 2.2%, respectively. Each significantly outperformed the industry benchmark. The strong same restaurant sales performance drove segment profit margin at each of these segments higher than last year, especially at LongHorn, where segment profit margin of 18.6% was 70 basis points higher than last year.
Same-restaurant sales at our Fine Dining segment decreased by 1.9%, still outperforming the Black Box fine dining benchmark, excluding Darden, by more than 200 basis points. This resulted in segment profit margin below last year at the Fine Dining segment.
This year-over-year sales decline was more the result of a wrapping on resurgence of demand in the fourth quarter of last year, which drove traffic retention to 108% of pre-COVID levels. Looking at traffic retention trends over the past three quarters, fine dining has been consistently between 101% to 102% of pre-COVID levels. We expect continued year-over-year traffic softness in our Fine Dining segment as we wrap on the first quarter traffic in fiscal 2023 that was at 107% of pre-COVID traffic levels. We expect traffic to stabilize on a year-over-year basis after the first quarter.
As we look at our annual results for fiscal 2023, we had strong same-restaurant sales of 6.8%, which outperformed the industry by 410 basis points, and our same-restaurant traffic was 510 basis points above the industry. The strong top line performance drove $1.6 billion in EBITDA from continuing operations. We returned $1.1 billion to shareholders and ended the year with $368 million of cash.
Looking at our fiscal 2023 full year results compared to pre-COVID, operating income margins have grown 140 basis points. Food and beverage as percent of sales increased 380 basis points driven by investments in food quality and pricing well below commodities inflation. Offsetting this unfavorability were improvements in labor productivity, reduced restaurant and marketing expenses and G&A efficiencies.
Our strong operating margin generates significant and durable cash flows. Since 2018, we have delivered approximately 8% annualized EBITDA growth. At the end of fiscal 2023, our balance sheet was well-positioned at just 1.8 times adjusted debt-to-EBITDAR, well below our targeted range of 2 times to 2.5 times.
And when we look at our performance compared to our long-term framework over the last five years, we've been achieved -- we've been able to achieve annualized total shareholder returns of 14.2% as measured by EPS growth plus dividend yield. This is near the high end of our target and was driven by annualized earnings after tax growth of 10.2% above the high end of our framework. Cash returns were 4%, which is at the middle of our framework.
As we look to the future, we still believe that over time, our 10% to 15% target for total shareholder returns is appropriate. However, we're increasing the share repurchase range to better reflect the impact of our share price appreciation since we last updated the framework five years ago. The updated share repurchase range is $300 million to $500 million.
Before we get into our outlook for fiscal 2024, I want to provide an update on the acquisition of Ruth's Chris, which we completed last week. This was financed through a $600 million term loan and cash on our balance sheet, bringing our adjusted debt-to-EBITDAR to approximately 2 times.
As we move forward into 2024, sales and profits from Ruth's Chris company-owned and operated locations will be included in our Fine Dining segment, while revenues and profits from the franchise locations will reside in our other segment, consistent with the treatment of our existing franchise locations. However, Fine Dining same-restaurant sales results will not include Ruth's Chris until they have been owned and operated by us for a period of 16 months.
As we mentioned in our conference call in early May, we expect to achieve run-rate synergies of approximately $20 million by the end of fiscal 2025, primarily through supply chain and G&A savings. We also expect Ruth's Chris will be accretive to our earnings per share by approximately $0.10 to $0.12 in fiscal 2024 and $0.20 to $0.25 in fiscal 2025. We anticipate total acquisition and integration-related expense of approximately $55 million pre-tax.
Now turning to our financial outlook for fiscal 2024, which includes Ruth's Chris operating results but excludes the aforementioned acquisition and integration-related expense. We expect total sales of $11.5 billion to $11.6 billion, driven by the addition of Ruth's Chris store portfolio, same-restaurant sales growth of 2.5% to 3.5%, and approximately 50 gross new restaurant openings, including four relocations.
Capital spending of $550 million to $600 million. Total inflation of approximately 3% to 4%, which includes commodities inflation of approximately 2.5% driven primarily by beef and produce, while most other categories are flat to deflationary. And hourly labor inflation in the mid single digits. And annual tax -- effective tax rate of approximately 12% to 12.5% and approximately 121.5 million diluted average shares outstanding for the year, all resulting in diluted net earnings per share between $8.55 and $8.85.
And finally, our Board approved an 8% increase to our regular quarterly dividend to $1.31 per share, implying an annual dividend of $5.24.
And with that, I will turn it back to Rick.
