MW:Dollar General adjusts full-year EPS; shares fall
By Ben Eisen
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) - Dollar General Corp. DG +1.42% reported its first-quarter profit rose 3% to $220.08 million, or 67 cents a share, from $213.41 million, or 63 cents a share, a year earlier. Adjusted earnings per share rose 13% to 71 cents a share. Revenue rose to $4.24 billion, from $3.90 billion a year earlier, the discount retailer said Tuesday. Same-store sales increased 2.6%. Analysts had expected earnings of 71 cents a share on revenue of $4.24 billion and same-store sales growth of 2.9%, according to FactSet. The company expects full-year adjusted earnings per share to be within a range of $3.15 to $3.22, down from an earlier range of $3.15 to $3.30. CEO Rick Dreiling said the growth in revenue comes from higher sales of consumables, despite slower sales in weather-related categories. Shares in Dollar General were down 4.8% in premarket trading.
