Family Dollar Stores, Inc. Misses Earnings, Beats Revenue

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Family Dollar Stores, Inc. (NYSE:FDO) released the earnings results from its fourth fiscal quarter and the full fiscal year. For the fourth quarter, the discount retail chain posted adjusted earnings of 73 cents per share on $2.61 billion in revenue, a 4.5% year over year increase. In the same quarter a year ago, Family Dollar reported adjusted earnings of 86 cents per share. Analysts had been expecting earnings of 77 cents per share on $2.58 billion in revenue.

Full-year earnings per share were $2.49, while adjusted earnings for the full year were $3.05 per share.

Breaking down Family Dollar’s quarterly earnings

Reported earnings were 30 cents per share for the fourth quarter, compared to 88 cents per share last year. Comparable store sales rose .3% for the quarter but fell 2.1% for the full year.

Gross profits for the quarter were $861.3 million or 32.9% of the company’s net sales. Family Dollar shut down 375 underperforming stores during the quarter and took $10.4 million in inventory write-downs at those stores.

Family Dollar’s full-year earnings

For the full year, Family Dollar recorded a .9% increase in net sales, which rose to $10.49 billion, compared to $10.39 billion in 2013. The fiscal 2014 year included an extra week compared to last year, so excluding that week, net sales rose 2.8%.

Gross profits for the year were $3.53 billion or 33.7% of net sales, compared to $3.55 billion or 34.2% of net sales last year.

“While we are still in the early stages of our turnaround plan, we believe that the strategic actions taken in fiscal 2014 will position the Company for better sales and earnings performance in fiscal 2015,” said Family Dollar Chairman and CEO Howard R. Levine in a statement. “We anticipate that the first quarter will be our most challenging quarter of fiscal 2015, but we expect momentum will build as we move through the rest of the year.”

Family Dollar declined to give guidance for 2015 due to the pending merger with Dollar Tree, Inc. (NASDAQ:DLTR).

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