Q: Hello: I am wondering what your opinion is on these three companies: Dollar General, Dollar Tree and Family Dollar. Are they worth investing in? I see Dollar Tree is expanding into Canada and the other two are extremely popular in the U.S. Thank you.
A: Dollar General, $44.65, symbol DG on New York (Shares outstanding: 328.7 million; Market cap: $14.7 billion; www.dollargeneral.com), operates 10,371 discount stores in 40 states. Nearly 70% of the company’s outlets serve communities with populations of 20,000 or less.
The sales mix of Dollar General’s stores is as follows: consumables (including food, paper and cleaning products, beverages and snacks, pet supplies and health and beauty items), 73.2%; seasonal (decorations, toys and gardening), 13.8%; home products (kitchen supplies, light bulbs and bed and bath goods), 6.8%; and basic apparel, 6.2%.
The company’s motto is “Save time. Save money. Every day!” Most of the items it sells are priced under $10, with about 25% at $1 or less.
In the three months ended November 2, 2012, Dollar General’s sales rose 10.2%, to $3.96 billion from $3.60 billion a year earlier. Earnings per share gained 24.0%, to $0.62 from $0.50.
Clothing sales, which had been lagging, increased 5.7% because the company lowered its prices. More important, Dollar…
Privacy Policy and Terms of Use
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Changes to this Policy
This Policy is the sole authorized statement of TSI Network's practices with respect to the collection of personal information through TSI Network's websites and the subsequent use and disclosure of such information. Any summaries of this Policy generated by third party software or otherwise (for example, in connection with the "Platform for Privacy Preferences" or "P3P") shall have no legal effect, are in no way binding upon TSI Network, shall not be relied upon in substitute for this Policy, and neither supersede nor modify this Policy.
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