In the latest close session, Dollar General (DG) was down 2.67% at $120.14. This change lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.38%. Elsewhere, the Dow saw an upswing of 0.02%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq appreciated by 0.9%.
Prior to today's trading, shares of the discount retailer had gained 6.06% outpaced the Retail-Wholesale sector's gain of 0.77% and the S&P 500's gain of 1.27%.
Market participants will be closely following the financial results of Dollar General in its upcoming release. The company is expected to report EPS of $2, up 7.53% from the prior-year quarter. Meanwhile, the latest consensus estimate predicts the revenue to be $11.17 billion, indicating a 4.16% increase compared to the same quarter of the previous year.
For the entire fiscal year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $7.36 per share and a revenue of $44.4 billion, representing changes of +7.45% and +3.92%, respectively, from the prior year.
Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for Dollar General. Recent revisions tend to reflect the latest near-term business trends. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the business and profitability.
Empirical research indicates that these revisions in estimates have a direct correlation with impending stock price performance. We developed the Zacks Rank to capitalize on this phenomenon. Our system takes these estimate changes into account and delivers a clear, actionable rating model.
The Zacks Rank system, which varies between #1 (Strong Buy) and #5 (Strong Sell), carries an impressive track record of exceeding expectations, confirmed by external audits, with stocks at #1 delivering an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection has moved 0.05% lower. Dollar General currently has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).
From a valuation perspective, Dollar General is currently exchanging hands at a Forward P/E ratio of 16.76. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 27.98, so one might conclude that Dollar General is trading at a discount comparatively.
We can additionally observe that DG currently boasts a PEG ratio of 1.88. This metric is used similarly to the famous P/E ratio, but the PEG ratio also takes into account the stock's expected earnings growth rate. The average PEG ratio for the Retail - Discount Stores industry stood at 2.46 at the close of the market yesterday.
The Retail - Discount Stores industry is part of the Retail-Wholesale sector. With its current Zacks Industry Rank of 7, this industry ranks in the top 3% of all industries, numbering over 250.
The Zacks Industry Rank evaluates the power of our distinct industry groups by determining the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks forming the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.
Make sure to utilize Zacks.com to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and more, in the coming trading sessions.
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Dollar General Corporation (DG): Free Stock Analysis Report
This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).