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Dollar General Q3 Beats Estimate, Raises Full-Year Outlook (DG)

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Shares of Dollar General Corp. (NYSE: DG), a Goodlettsville, Tennessee-based discount retailer, are climbing in pre-market trading today after the company announced better than expected third-quarter financial results and raised its full-year outlook.

For fiscal year 2011, Dollar General now expects earnings of $2.29 -$2.32 per share, up from previous estimate of $2.22-$2.30 per share. This compares with Street estimates of $1.82 per share.

The discount retailer expects full-year sales to climb 13%. Same-store sales for the full-year are expected to rise 5.6%-5.8%.


Dollar General reported third-quarter net income of $171.2 million, or $0.50 per share, compared with $128.1 million, or $0.37 per share reported for the same period in the previous year.

The company’s same-store sales for the third quarter rise 6.3%. Total sales for the quarter rose 11.5% on a year-over-year basis to $3.60 billion. Gross margin for the quarter came in at 31%, down from 31.4% reported for the same period in the previous year.

Rick Dreiling, Chairman and CEO of Dollar General, said that the company delivered another great quarter, and expects to continue to build upon its strong track record of delivering excellent results for shareholders. Dreiling said that for the holiday season and into 2012, the company expects its customers to remain very interested in value and in ways to make their dollars go further. He added that the company’s November sales were strong and its Thanksgiving week and Black Friday sales suggest that it is well positioned to meet customers’ expectations.

Dollar General also announced today that its Board of Directors authorized the repurchase of up to $500 million of its common stock.

Dollar General shares were up 2.25% to $40.84, at last check in pre-market trading today. The stock has outperformed the S&P 500 this year, gaining 30.22%, compared with a decline of 1.06% for the S&P 500.

 

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edliston
Post Written By: Ed Liston

Ed Liston is a senior contributing editor at TheStockMarketWatch.com. An active market watcher and investor, Ed guides an independent team of experienced analysts and writes for multiple stock trader publications. He is widely quoted in various financial publications on the Internet. When Ed is not writing about stocks, investing in stocks, talking about stocks, or otherwise doing something stock related, he likes to go sailing and fishing in his yacht.


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Ed Liston

Ed Liston is a senior contributing editor at TheStockMarketWatch.com. An active market watcher and investor, Ed guides an independent team of experienced analysts and writes for multiple stock trader publications. He is widely quoted in various financial publications on the Internet. When Ed is not writing about stocks, investing in stocks, talking about stocks, or otherwise doing something stock related, he likes to go sailing and fishing.

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