What to Expect When Dollar General Reports Thursday

Dollar General Corp. (NYSE: DG | DG Price Prediction) is scheduled to release its fiscal fourth-quarter financial results before the markets open on Thursday. Analysts are calling for $2.01 in earnings per share (EPS) and $7.15 billion in revenue. The same period from last year had $1.84 in EPS and $6.65 billion in revenue.

The company previously called for full-year guidance with EPS in the range of $6.55 to $6.65 and net sales growing 8% and same-store sales increasing 3%. In the past three quarters, Dollar General has posted a cumulative $4.64 in EPS, so this guidance would imply fourth-quarter EPS in the range of $1.91 to $2.01.

During Dollar General’s fiscal third quarter, net sales increased 8.9% year over year. 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.

At the same time, same-store sales increased 4.6%, driven by increases in both average transaction amount and customer traffic. Same-store sales in the third quarter included growth in the consumables, seasonal, home and apparel categories.

Excluding Wednesday’s move, Dollar General stock has outperformed the broad markets with a gain of about 6.5% year to date. In the past 52 weeks, the share price was up closer to 39%.

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Here’s what analysts were saying ahead of the report:

• Wells Fargo has a Hold rating.
• Jefferies has a Buy rating with a $190 price target.
• Raymond James has a Strong Buy rating and a $185 price target.
• Morgan Stanley rates it as Overweight with a $174 target price.
• Telsey Advisory Group has an Outperform rating and a $170 target.

Dollar General stock traded down about 2% at $162.45 on Wednesday, in a 52-week range of $108.74 to $167.44. The consensus analyst price target is $173.91.

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