Dollar General Earnings Beat Expectations

Dollar General Corp reported earnings that were better than had been expected during its first quarter, but sales did not reach analysts’ expectations.

The company based in Tennessee posted net income for the quarter of $253 million equal to 84 cents per share in comparison to last year during the same period of $222.4 million and 72 cents a share.

Sales were up 8.8% compared to last year during the same time to finish the quarter at $4.93 billion from last year’s $4.52 billion. Analysts had expected profits of 81 cents a share with revenue reaching $4.94 billion.

Its sales at same store were higher by 3.7% during the quarter. The company’s gross profit, as a percentage of overall sales was up 45 basis points to more than 30.5% during the quarter.

General, administrative and selling expense as a percentage of overall sales was wider from 21.6% to 21.8%. At the start of May 2015, inventories of merchandise at Dollar General were $2.84 billion compared to $2.61 billion as of the start of May in 2014.

CEO and Chairman of Dollar Rick Dreiling said that the company is well positioned to win with its customers as it continues to invest in growing the business. Dreiling said the company was executing its plan to deliver more value to its shareholders through capitalizing on its growth opportunities and by returning capital to the shareholders by repurchasing shares and anticipated quarterly dividends on a regular basis.

Dollar General is expecting its fiscal year 2015 earnings to be between $3.85 and $3.95 a share, versus estimates of analysts of $3.94 a share. Dollar General is also projecting that its sales will increase between 8% and 9% compared to last year and that sales of same stores will increase 3% to 3.5%.

Shares of Dollar General were up almost 3% in trading after hours on Monday and up marginally in early trading on Tuesday morning.