Family Dollar Bucks Up: Fool by Numbers

On June 22, Family Dollar (NYSE: FDO  ) released Q3 2006 earnings for the period ended May 27.

• Sales increased nearly 10% from the prior year.
• Net profits rose by a smaller amount: 5.8%.
• Reduced share count boosted EPS growth to 15% over the prior-year quarter.

(Figures in thousands, except per-share data)

Income Statement Highlights

	Avg. Est.	Q3 2006	Q3 2005	Change
Sales	$1,570,000	$1,569,516	$1,427,966	9.9%
Net Profit	--	$56,914	$53,774	5.8%
EPS	$0.35	$0.37	$0.32	15.6%
Diluted Shares		154,566	167,160	(7.5%)

Get back to basics with a look at the income statement.

Margin Checkup

	Q3 2006	Q3 2005	Change*
Gross Margin	33.62%	33.57%	0.05
Operating Margin	5.88%	5.95%	(0.07)
Net Margin	3.63%	3.77%	(0.14)

*Expressed in percentage points.

Margins are the earnings engine. See how they work.

Balance Sheet Highlights

Assets	Q3 2006	Q3 2005	Change
Cash + ST Invest.	$168,145	$179,039	(6.1%)
Accounts Rec.	No Data	No Data	N/A
Inventory	$1,028,221	$990,828	3.8%

Liabilities	Q3 2006	Q3 2005	Change
Accounts Payable	$918,281	$807,513	13.7%
Long-Term Debt	$250,000	$0	N/A

Learn the ways of the balance sheet.

Cash Flow Highlights

No data provided. (Booo!)

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Related Companies:

• Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT  )
• Dollar Tree (Nasdaq: DLTR  )
• Dollar General (NYSE: DG  )
• 99 Cents Only (NYSE: NDN  )
• Target (NYSE: TGT  )

Family Dollar is aMotley Fool Stock Advisorrecommendation, and Wal-Mart and Dollar Tree are Inside Valuepicks. You can see why with a free trial of either.

Fool by Numbers is designed to give you the raw earnings information in a timely fashion, putting all the numbers you need in one easy-to-read place. But at The Motley Fool, we believe numbers tell only part of the story, so check Fool.com for more of our in-depth discussion of what the numbers mean.

At the time of publication, Seth Jayson had no positions in any company mentioned here. Fool rules are here.