Dollar General (NYSE:DG) shares fell 8% in premarket Thursday after the company’s Q1 results trailed analyst expectations.
The company posted EPS of $2.34 on revenue of $9.3 billion, missing analyst targets for a profit of $2.39 on revenue of $9.47B. Comparable sales rose only 1.6%, much slower than the expected increase of 3.8%.
"While the macroeconomic environment has been more challenging than expected, particularly for our core customer, we are confident in Dollar General's ability to deliver strong growth in the years ahead, despite the near-term pressure which impacted our first quarter sales results and is anticipated to impact our full-year sales and EPS," said Jeff Owen, Dollar General's chief executive officer.
Dollar General said it now expects its net sales to grow 3.5-5%, worse than the previous expectations of a 5.5-6% increase. Same-store sales are seen rising 1-2% while the company previously expected a 3-3.5% rise. Analysts were looking for same-store sales to increase 3.76%.
Earnings per share are expected to be between flat and an 8% decline, a sharp contrast compared to the prior forecast of about a 4% to 6% rise.