Dollar General Stock Rises 5% After First-quarter Profit, Revenue Beat

Dollar General Corp. shares rose 4.9% in premarket trade Thursday after the company reported first-quarter profit and revenue beats. Earnings fell to $279.5 million, or $1.02 per share, from $295.1 million, or $1.03 per share in the year-earlier period. Earnings-per-share included a charge of 1 cent related to early retirement of long-term obligations, the company said, compared with the FactSet consensus of 95 cents. Revenue rose to $5.61 billion from $5.27 billion, above the FactSet consensus of $5.28 billion. The company said its proposed acquisition of more than 300 stores in 36 states from a small-box retailer had been approved by the Federal Trade Commission in April and is expected to close in June, with the store sites expected to be changed to the Dollar General banner by the end of November. The new stores should bring Dollar General's expected new store growth above guidance for 2017, and to modestly grow the company's EPS, Dollar General said. The company reaffirmed its EPS guidance for the fiscal year, and said it expects net sales to increase by 5% to 7%, above the prior guidance range of 4% to 6%. Dollar General shares have risen 0.05% over the last three months, compared with a 0.7% rise in the S&P 500 .