Dollar Tree Bullish on Fiscal 2015, Shares Climb

Dollar Tree (NASDAQ:DLTR) reported stronger-than-expected first-quarter earnings Thursday as more thrifty consumers visited its stores looking for deals.

The Chesapeake, Va.-based deep discount retailer also backed a bullish outlook for fiscal 2015.

It now sees earnings between $2.94 and $3.12 a share for the full year on sales of $8.37 billion to $8.54 billion, both above the consensus view of $2.76 and $7.89 billion, respectively.

It’s a little more cautious in the current quarter, anticipating second-quarter earnings of 58 cents to 64 cents, mostly below the Street’s view of 64 cents, on flat sales growth.

Yet its shares soared 7.6% to $53.80 in recent trade.

In its most recent quarter, Dollar Tree reported net income of $138.3 million, or 67 cents a share, compared with a year-earlier profit of $133.5 million, or 60 cents.

The results topped average analyst estimates in a Thomson Reuters poll by a penny.

Revenue for the three-month period was $2 billion, in-line with the Street’s view, while same-store sales, a key growth metric of sales at stores open longer than a year, increased 2%.

"Our first quarter sales grew as the result of increases in both traffic and average ticket with our discretionary business growing slightly faster than consumables," said CEO Bob Sasser.

Dollar Tree also continued to open more stores during the quarter, adding 94 new locations and expanding or relocating another 28. That lifted its retail selling square footage by 6.8%.