Dollar General Q2 FY2026: sales up 5.2%, EPS up 33.3%, guidance raised
Dollar General's fiscal 2026 second quarter looked strong: sales grew 5.2% to $11.29 billion, gross margin reached 32.6%, and diluted EPS jumped 33.3% to $2.48, with management raising full-year EPS guidance to roughly $7.80–$8.00. The honest catch is that tariff refunds made up about $0.25 of that EPS and are not expected to repeat in the second half. Below: what held up, and what the guidance really assumes.
1 · Expected vs. Actual
Free preview belowDiluted EPS rose 33.3% to $2.48 from $1.86, and net income rose 33.8% to $550.32 million. About $0.25 of that $2.48 came from tariff refunds after related reinvestments, so a meaningful slice of the quarter's profit was a one-off. Gross margin of 32.6% was 127 basis points better than a year ago, and management attributed roughly 81 basis points of that gain to the same tariff refunds.
Sales rose 5.2% to $11.29 billion from $10.73 billion a year earlier, driven by 3.5% same-store sales growth built on 2.0% more customer traffic and 1.5% larger average tickets. Every one of the four merchandising categories grew, with seasonal the fastest at 7.4% and consumables the largest at $9.26 billion. This was the sixth consecutive quarter of positive comparable sales.
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Figures on this page come from the company's original SEC filings. The analysis is generated automatically and checked against validation rules, but may still contain errors or omissions. Not investment advice. · Generated 2026-09-18
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