Dollar General Drops As Earnings Miss Estimates, Outlook Decreased

(RTTNews) - Shares of Dollar General Corporation (DG) are falling more than 16% Thursday morning after reporting lower profit in the second quarter, below the consensus estimates. The retailer also slashed its full-year outlook.

Net income second quarter declined significantly to $468.84 million or $2.13 per share from $678.03 million or $2.98 per share in the same quarter a year ago, primarily due to higher expenses. Analysts on average, polled by Thomson-Reuters expected the company to report earnings of $2.46 per share for the quarter.

Sales for the quarter, however, increased 3.9% to $9.796 billion. The consensus estimate stood at $9.92 billion.

For the full year, the company now expects net sales growth in the range of 1.3%-3.3%, compared to its previous expectation of 3.5% - 5.0%. EPS for the year is expected in the range of $7.10 - $8.30, or a decline of 34% - 22%, compared to its previous outlook of 8% decline to flat growth. Analysts expect the company to report earnings of $10.01 per share on revenue growth of 3.9% for the year.

Dollar General shares, currently at $132.05, touched a new low of $128.48 this morning.