Keurig Green Mountain Inc. And Dollar Tree Inc. Jump as Stocks Tick Higher

After dropping by nearly 1% in early trading, stocks staged a comeback to finish with slight gains today. The S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average both added 0.1%.

^DJI data by YCharts

Economic newsInvestors got two pieces of good economic news. First, the government released a revised estimate of third-quarter GDP growth before the opening bell -- the official figure was raised to 2.1% from the original 1.5% estimate. The latest numbers point to a slowdown from the second-quarter's 3.9% jump, but still show steady economic growth.

Source: Federal Reserve Economic Data

That's especially true in the housing market, where a report published today showed home price appreciation across the country during the month of September. The latest S&P/Case-Shiller report pointed to "renewed strength" in the general economy as helping power home price gains at over twice the rate of inflation.

Meanwhile Keurig Green Mountain and Dollar Tree led the S&P 500 as the two biggest percentage-point gainers on the day.

Keurig Green Mountain's big weekKeurig Green Mountain's stock finished up 7% after the home beverage machine maker announced that its KOLD system is now on sale in the Canadian market, where it will retail for a suggested $399.

Image source: Keurig.

While that expansion progress is good news for the business, KOLD isn't likely to attract huge demand. In fact, management is targeting only about 80,000 unit sales over the first year of availability. "These are very early days and we caution that 2016 will be a year of launch and learn," CEO Brian Kelley told analysts in a conference call last week.

Still, investors are cheering the company's third-quarter results that included surprisingly strong cash generation and profit growth, along with a hefty 13% dividend boost. The stock remains deep in negative territory, down 63% since the start of the year. Yet shares have risen 21% in the four trading days since Keurig posted its third-quarter report.

Dollar Tree's sales growth boostDollar Tree's stock jumped 7% higher after the discount retailer posted third-quarter results that showed steady growth and encouraging progress in its merger with Family Dollar. Comparable-store sales rose 2%, representing the company's 31st straight quarter of growth. Gross profit, boosted by the Family Dollar acquisition, more than doubled to $675 million. "I am pleased with our Company's third quarter performance," CEO Bob Sasser said in a press release.

The overall business took a big hit to profitability gross margin sunk to 28% of sales from 35% last year mainly due to the impact of lower-margin Family Dollar products being included in the mix this time. Yet the combination of the two retailing operations still has management feeling optimistic. "Our integration project is on schedule and we are on track to achieve our stated synergy goals," Sasser said. Those synergies should eventually add up to $300 million of annual savings for the combined businesses, management has said.

Sasser described both store chains as "well-stocked and prepared" for the critical holiday season. Comps should improve at a low single-digit pace, executives said. Meanwhile, Dollar Tree raised its full-year sales outlook: It now sees revenue coming in at $15.5 billion at the midpoint of guidance, up from the $15.41 billion estimate it issued back in August.

The article Keurig Green Mountain Inc. And Dollar Tree Inc. Jump as Stocks Tick Higher originally appeared on Fool.com.

Demitrios Kalogeropoulos has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Keurig Green Mountain. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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