EmailDollar General (DG $47.35 -1.11) reported first quarter earnings of $0.63 per share, $0.04 better than the Capital IQ Consensus of $0.59, while revenues rose 13.0% year/year to $3.9 billion versus the $3.83 bln consensus; comps +6.7%. The company issued in-line guidance for fiscal year 2013 and raised EPS $0.03 to $2.68-2.78, excluding non-recurring items, vs. $2.76 Capital IQ Consensus and reaffirmed fiscal year 2013 revenues of +8-9% to ~$15.99-16.14 billion versus the $16.06 billion consensus. Same-store sales, based on a comparable 52-week period, are expected to increase 3 to 5 percent. Operating profit for 2012 is expected to be between $1.62 billion and $1.66 billion, as compared to the Company's previous guidance of between $1.60 billion and $1.65 billion.
The company also announced an underwritten secondary public offering of 25.0 million common shares. The shares are being sold by certain existing shareholders. No shares are being sold by the Company in this offering, and it will not receive any proceeds from the offering. In connection with the offering, certain of the selling shareholders have granted to the underwriters an option to purchase up to 3.75 million additional shares. Citigroup, Goldman, Sachs & Co. and KKR, along with Barclays and J.P. Morgan, are serving as joint book running managers for the offering, with BofA Merrill Lynch, Wells Fargo Securities, Sanford C. Bernstein, Deutsche Bank Securities and Macquarie Capital acting as co-managers.
