Dollar General Corporation (DG Quick QuoteDG - Free Report) reported fourth-quarter fiscal 2025 results, wherein both the top and bottom lines beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate and increased year over year, marking continued operational progress and healthy customer traffic trends. The company delivered steady same-store sales growth, supported by gains across both consumable and non-consumable categories. Despite upbeat fourth-quarter results, DG’s shares have lost 5% in the trading hours.

More on DG’s Q4 Performance

Dollar General posted quarterly earnings of $1.93 per share, which came ahead of the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.61. The bottom line skyrocketed 121.8% from the prior-year period. 

Net sales of $10,911.2 million rose 5.9% year over year and came ahead of the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $10,785 million. This increase was backed by contributions from store openings and higher same-store sales, though partly offset by the impact of store closures.

Same-store sales grew 4.3%, reflecting a 2.6% increase in customer traffic and 1.7% in average transaction amount. Growth was recorded across all major categories, including consumables, seasonal, home products and apparel. We had anticipated same-store sales growth of 2.8% for the quarter.

DG’s Key Metrics & Margin Insights

DG’s consumables category generated $8,772 million, up 5.5% from the prior year. Seasonal sales increased 8.2% to $1,206.1 million, Home Products’ sales rose 8.6% to $643.8 million, and Apparel sales improved 3.5% to $289.3 million.

Gross margin expanded 105 basis points to 30.4%, benefiting from lower shrink, increased inventory markups and decreased inventory damages, partly offset by a higher LIFO provision. We had envisioned an 80-basis-point increase in gross margin.

SG&A expenses, as a percentage of sales, leveraged 165 basis points to 24.9%, stemming from impairment charges, mainly owing to the store-portfolio optimization review completed in fiscal 2024, and retail salaries, somewhat offset by higher incentive compensation. We anticipated 90 basis points of deleverage in SG&A expenses. Dollar General’s operating profit jumped 106.1% to $606.3 million.

DG’s Financial Snapshot

This Goodlettsville, TN-based company ended the quarter with cash and cash equivalents of $1,138.5 million, long-term obligations of $4,565.9 million and total shareholders’ equity of $8,512 million.

Management incurred capital expenditures of $1.2 billion in fiscal 2025. For fiscal 2026, Dollar General now anticipates capital expenditures, including investments in the strategic efforts, to be in the $1.4–$1.5 billion range. The company does not plan to repurchase shares in fiscal 2026.

As of Jan. 30, 2026, total merchandise inventories, at cost, were $6.3 billion compared with $6.7 billion as of Jan. 31, 2025, showing a decline of 7% on an average per-store basis. 

During fiscal 2025, the company introduced 581 stores in the United States and eight stores in Mexico, remodeling 2,000 stores through Project Renovate and 2,254 stores through Project Elevate, while relocating 47 stores. 

In fiscal 2025, DG did not repurchase any shares under its share repurchase program. On March 11, 2026, the company’s board declared a quarterly cash dividend of 59 cents per share on its common stock, payable on or before April 21, 2026, to shareholders of record as of April 7, 2026.

Dollar General’s Expectations for FY26

Dollar General now expects net sales growth of 3.7-4.2% while same-store sales are projected to increase 2.2–2.7%. Earnings per share are anticipated to be between $7.10 and $7.35, assuming an effective tax rate of roughly 25%. This view also reflects a negative impact of about 13 cents due to the expiration of the Work Opportunity Tax Credit on Dec. 31, 2025. Dollar General reported net sales of $42.7 billion and earnings per share of $6.85 in fiscal 2025.

The company has reaffirmed its real estate strategy, which includes about 4,730 projects. Plans call for opening roughly 450 U.S. stores and about 10 in Mexico, remodeling around 2,000 locations under Project Renovate and about 2,250 under Project Elevate, as well as relocating approximately 20 stores.
Shares of this Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) company have risen 1.9% in the past year compared with the industry’s growth of 11%.

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