Dollar General's Stock Slumps After Profit And Sales Miss Expectations

Shares of Dollar General Corp. dropped 4.9% in light premarket trade Thursday, after the discount retailer missed fiscal third-quarter profit and sales expectations and provided a downbeat outlook. Earnings for the quarter to Oct. 28 fell to $235.3 million, or 84 cents a share, from $253.3 million, or 86 cents a share, in the same period a year ago. The results include a 5-cents-per-share charge for relocation costs. The FactSet consensus for earnings per share was 93 cents. Revenue rose to $5.32 billion from $5.07 billion, just shy of the FactSet consensus of $5.36 billion, as same-store sales declined 0.1% to miss expectations of a 0.6% rise. The company now expects fiscal 2016 EPS to grow at the low end of its long-term target of 10% to 15%, while the FactSet consensus of $4.49 implies 13.4% growth. "The challenging retail environment that we experienced in the 2016 second quarter continued into the third quarter, contributing to weakness in our same-store sales and our financial performance," said Chief Executive Todd Vasos. The stock has gained 7.6% year to date through Thursday, while the SPDR S&P Retail ETF has advanced 5.7% and the S&P 500 has climbed 7.6%.