What to Expect When Dollar General Reports Thursday

Dollar General Corp. (NYSE: DG | DG Price Prediction) is scheduled to release its fiscal first-quarter financial results before the markets open on Thursday. The consensus estimates are calling for $1.39 in earnings per share (EPS) and $6.56 billion in revenue. The same period of last year reportedly had $1.36 in EPS and $6.11 billion in revenue.

In the fourth quarter, sales increased 8.5% year over year, with same-store sales increasing 4.0% in that time. This net sales increase included positive sales contributions from new stores and growth in same-store sales, modestly offset by the impact of store closures. Increases in average transaction amount and customer traffic drove same-store sales.

At that time, the company issued guidance for fiscal 2020, in which it said that it expects to see net sales growth of roughly 7%, same-store sales growth of 2.5% and EPS in the range of $6.30 to $6.50. Consensus estimates are calling for $6.42 in EPS and $27.47 billion in revenue for the full year.

Excluding Wednesday’s move, Dollar General has more or less performed in line with the broad markets, with its stock up about 11% year to date. In the past 52 weeks, the stock is actually up about 24%.

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A few analysts weighed in on Dollar General ahead of the report:

• Loop Capital has a Buy rating with a $152 price target.
• Morgan Stanley has an Overweight rating and a $129 target.
• Merrill Lynch has a Buy rating with a $133 price target.
• JPMorgan has an Overweight rating and a $133 target price.
• Evercore ISI has an Underperform rating with a $95 target.

Shares of Dollar General were down less than 1% at $119.23 on Wednesday, in a 52-week range of $86.87 to $126.84. The consensus price target is $125.54.

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