Flourishing Family Dollar Stores: Fool by Numbers

On March 29, Stock Advisor recommendation Family Dollar Stores (NYSE: FDO  ) released earnings for the second quarter ended March 3.

• Comparable-store sales increased 0.4% for the 13-week quarter, helped by an increase in the average customer transaction amount.
• Management expects a 1% to 3% increase in comparable-store sales, with EPS of about $0.39 to $0.43 per share for the third quarter.
• The company opened 170 new stores and closed 24 in the first half of fiscal 2007 and expects to open around 300 stores and close 45 in the full year.
• Family Dollar has earned three out of five stars in our Motley Fool CAPS community intelligence database, outpacing competitor Dollar General (NYSE: DG  ) by two stars. Have an opinion on Family Dollar or other stocks? Join CAPS now and let your voice be heard!    

(Figures in millions, except per-share data)

Income Statement Highlights

	Q2 2007	Q2 2006	Change
Sales	$1,947.4	$1,735.7	12.2%
Net Profit	$90.5	$54.5	66.0%
EPS	$0.60	$0.35	71.4%
Diluted Shares	150.9	156.8	(3.7%)

Get back to basics with the income statement.

Margin Checkup

	Q2 2007	Q2 2006	Change*
Gross Margin	33.5%	32.9%	0.6
Operating Margin	7.4%	5.0%	2.3
Net Margin	4.7%	3.1%	1.5

*Expressed in percentage points

Margins are the earnings engine.

Balance Sheet Highlights

Assets	Q2 2007	Q2 2006	Change
Cash + ST Invest.	$415.6	$330.8	25.6%
Inventory	$1,001.4	$1,016.5	(1.5%)

Liabilities	Q2 2007	Q2 2006	Change
Accounts Payable	$997.9	$948.9	5.2%
Long-Term Debt	$250.0	$250.0	0.0%

The balance sheet reflects the company's health.

Cash Flow Highlights

We Fools have to wonder why a company with Dollar in its name wouldn't provide a cash flow statement with earnings.

Free cash flow is a Fool's best friend.

Related Foolishness:

• Foolish Forecast: Family Dollar Discounts Future
• Dollar General Commands Top Dollar
• Dollar Tree Sprouts Growth

What other stocks are at the top of Tom and David Gardner's list? Be our guest at the Stock Advisor website for 30 days and find out.

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. This data has been provided by Netscribes. To provide feedback on this article, please click on the "feedback" button below.