Dollar General Profit Beats But Sales Fall Short In First Quarter

Dollar General Corp. said Thursday it had net income of $295 million, or $1.03 a share, in the first quarter, up from $253 million, or 84 cents a share, in the year-earlier period. Sales rose 7% to $5.27 billion from $4.92 billion. The FactSet consensus was for EPS of 95 cents and sales of $5.28 billion. Same-store sales rose 2.2%, below the FactSet consensus of 2.4%. "Same-store sales increases were driven by positive results in both the consumables category and certain of the non-consumables categories, with sales of consumable merchandise outpacing sales of non-consumable merchandise," the company said in a statement. Shares were not yet active in premarket trade, but are up 17% in the year so far, while the S&P 500 has gained 2.3%.