Dollar General's Growth Lifts Discount Retail Stocks

Shares of Dollar General (NYSE:DG) hit a new 52-week high after the company beat top and bottom line third-quarter estimates on Thursday, helping lift the rest of the discount retail industry—including Burlington Stores (NYSE:BURL) and Dollar Tree (NASDAQ:DLTR) .

The retail sector has been shaky in recent years, as Amazon’s (NASDAQ:AMZN) online shopping revolution really heated up. Nevertheless, Dollar General has managed to grow in a more traditional brick-and-mortar fashion.

The company reported Q3 revenues of $5.90 billion, which marked an 11% year-over-year jump. This was driven in large part by a 4.3% gain in same-store sales. Dollar General attributed its same-store sales growth to an increase in both average transaction amount and overall traffic.

On top of that, the company’s Q3 EPS rose by 10.1% to beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate. The third-quarter also marked Dollar General’s fourth consecutive bottom line beat.

Still, what might be most impressive is that the company counties to grow by maintaining traditional, in-store retail roots. In fact, Dollar General plans to open a large number of stores in 2018.

"We remain excited about the future for Dollar General. For fiscal 2018, we have plans to execute approximately 2,000 real estate projects comprised of 900 new stores, 1,000 store remodels and 100 store relocations,” CEO Todd Vasos said in a statement.

“We continue to believe that investing in the business through our high-return new store growth is the best use of our capital to help drive long-term shareholder value.”

In a year when more than 8,600 retail locations are expected to close their doors, according to Credit Suisse (SIX:CSGN) analysts—a figure that tops the number of brick-and-mortar locations that shuttered during the 2008 recession—investors are excited about Dollar General’s in-store growth and physical retail expansion.

Shares of Dollar General rose 2% premarket and have since climbed over 3.20% to hit a new 52-week intraday trading high of $96.35 per share.

With that said, the discount retail industry as a whole has also fared relatively well during these tumultuous retail times, and today’s Dollar General performance helped shares of other discount retailers surge on Thursday.

Shares of Burlington Stores gained over 2.50%, while Big Lots (NYSE:BIG) saw its stock price pop 1.50%, as they both inched close to their 52-week highs.

Dollar Tree stock jumped over 2% to hit a new 52-week high water mark. Shares of Ross Stores (NASDAQ:ROST) experienced marginal gains.

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