Dollar General $DG raised its full-year profit forecast on Tuesday after posting first-quarter earnings that topped Wall Street expectations, as consumers continued turning to the discount retailer for low-cost essentials.
At $2.00 per diluted share, quarterly earnings cleared the $1.89 analyst consensus tracked by The Wall Street Journal, representing a 12.4% improvement over the $1.78 reported in the same quarter a year ago.
Dollar General stock gained about 5% in premarket trading on Tuesday.
Net sales rose 3.4% to $10.79 billion, driven by new store openings and same-store sales growth of 2.0%. Same-store sales growth reflected a 1.4% increase in customer traffic and a 0.5% rise in average transaction amount, the company said. The retailer's bottom line came in at $444.1 million, a gain of roughly $52 million compared with the year-earlier period's $391.9 million.
Gross margin widened by 65 basis points to reach 31.6%, with favorable inventory dynamics — including stronger markups and reduced shrink and damage costs — powering an operating profit of $638.5 million, a 10.8% year-over-year increase that absorbed the drag of unusually harsh winter weather and elevated fuel expenses.
Looking ahead to fiscal 2026, the company lifted its full-year diluted EPS target to $7.20–$7.45 from the prior $7.10–$7.35 range, while leaving its top-line projections unchanged at net sales growth of 3.7%–4.2% and same-store sales growth of 2.2%–2.7%. Any benefits that might eventually flow from tariff refund payments were excluded from that revised outlook.
"We believe the essential nature of our offering and our expansive footprint position us well to navigate the current macroeconomic environment," Dollar General CEO Todd Vasos said in a statement.
Dollar General ended the quarter with 21,055 stores across its Dollar General, DG Market, DGX, and pOpshelf formats in the U.S., as well as Mi Súper Dollar General stores in Mexico. The company opened 195 new stores during the quarter and closed 33.
The company's board declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.59 per share, payable on or before July 21, 2026 to shareholders of record on July 7, 2026.