Oppenheimer analyst Rupesh Parikh maintained a Buy rating on Dollar General (DG) today and set a price target of $120. The company’s shares closed yesterday at $111.70.
Parikh commented:
“We overall view the Q3 results and updated guidance as modestly below elevated expectations. On the positive side, comps topped Street forecasts and the underlying EPS delivery excluding hurricane expenses would have beat Street forecasts. DG continues to drive industry-leading bottom-line performance with 36% YoY EPS growth. However, on the negative side, management lowered full year guidance primarily due to hurricane expenses and narrowed full year comp expectations to the middle of the range. We are maintaining DG’s top pick status, and would take advantage of the weakness. DG shares tend to be volatile on the prints, and we still feel confident in the company’s ability to deliver industry-leading bottom-line growth next year within our food retailing/discounter universe.”
According to TipRanks.com, Parikh is a 5-star analyst with an average return of 16.3% and a 64.6% success rate. Parikh covers the Services sector, focusing on stocks such as Blue Apron Holdings Inc, United Natural Foods, and Wal-Mart Stores Inc.
Currently, the analyst consensus on Dollar General is a Strong Buy with an average price target of $122.80.
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Based on Dollar General’s latest earnings release for the quarter ending July 31, the company reported a quarterly net profit of $407 million. In comparison, last year the company had a net profit of $253 million.
Based on the recent corporate insider activity of 42 insiders, corporate insider sentiment is negative on the stock. Most recently, in September 2018, Robert Ravener, the EVP & Chief People Officer of DG sold 22,440 shares for a total of $2,501,792.
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Dollar General Corp. engages in retailing of merchandise, including consumables, seasonal, home products, and apparel. Its brands include Clorox, Energizer, Procter & Gamble, Hanes, Coca-Cola, Mars, Unilever, Nestle, Kimberly-Clark, Kellogg’s, General Mills, and PepsiCo.
