3 Stocks to Watch on Thursday: Dollar General Corp. (DG), Box Inc (BOX) and Express, Inc. (EXPR)

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Dollar General Corp. (NYSE:DG), Box Inc (NYSE:BOX) and Express, Inc. (NYSE:EXPR) are taking center stage Thursday morning following the trio’s batch of earnings reports.

3 Stocks to Watch on Thursday: Dollar General Corp. (DG), Box Inc (BOX) and Express, Inc. (EXPR)U.S. stock futures are tracking slight gains this morning, a day after a broad-market dip led mostly by the financial space. However, the markets started to recover near Wednesday’s end, clawing back most of their midday losses.

As we jump into Thursday, Dollar General and Box are doing their part to keep the markets aloft, though Express could serve as a hefty anchor.

Dollar General Corp. (DG)

DG shares were up solidly on Thursday morning amid some great first-quarter results and some other positive announcements.

For Q1, Dollar General announced beats on the top and bottom lines. Revenues of $5.61 billion were up 6.4% year-over-year and beat expectations of $5.28 billion. Net income did decline by about 5% to $279.5 million, but on a per-share basis came out just 1 cent lower to $1.02 — more than enough to top estimates of 95 cents.

The company also hiked its full-year revenue guidance from growth of 4%-6% to a range of 5%-7%, and kept its earnings guidance in place at $4.25 to $4.50 per share.

Dollar General will be growing, too, with the company saying its acquisition of 322 locations from a “small-box multi-price point retailer,” which received the Federal Trade Commission’s blessing back in April, will impact fiscal 2017 revenues by about 100 basis points. The company also will take a 3-cent charge in Q2 thanks to lease termination and ancillary costs.

DG stock chart

As a result, DG stock is tracking 5% gains for Thursday’s open, which would swing shares back into the black for 2017. The move should put shares solidly above their long-term 200-day moving average, which has served as overhead resistance for months. A sustained break above could lead to additional upside, first up to the $79 area last reached in February.

Box Inc (BOX)

Cloud services company Box is moving closer and closer to its post-IPO high thanks to a big post-earnings move higher Thursday morning.

Box’s bottom line was still red, with the company reporting a 13-cent adjusted loss for its first quarter. However, that was a cent better than the Street expected, and 4 cents narrower than its year-ago loss. Meanwhile, that came on a 30% rise in revenues to $117 million, which also topped the consensus mark for $114.7 million. Billings of $100 million were also up 31% year-over-year.

Better still, Box also guided higher on both the top and bottom lines. It’s now looking for a loss of 44 to 48 cents per share, down from 45 to 49 cents, on revenues in a range of $502 to $506 million, with the midpoint of the range up $2 million from its previous guidance.

Over the quarter, Box expanded its data residency operations to the U.K., in partnership with International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM).

Box, which priced at $14 per share back in 2015, leaped to over $23 per share — a price it hasn’t seen since. BOX shares dropped as much as 60% through mid-2016 before reversing into a nearly 90% recovery. That will be extended this morning, with BOX up by about 5% this morning.

Express, Inc. (EXPR)

EXPR won’t be nearly so fortunate, with the retailer following the industry’s suit with a disappointing quarter and a massive drop in its share price.

Express lost $4.5 million, or 6 cents per share, in its fiscal first quarter — flipping from a 16-cent profit in the year-ago quarter. While Wall Street was expecting red ink, it wasn’t expecting this much, projecting a loss of just 2 cents per share.

Meanwhile, revenues of $467 million were off 7% and just missed the consensus estimate of $467.7 million.

Guidance was particularly weak, with the company forecasting full-year earnings of 41 to 48 cents per share, against expectations of 66 cents.

EXPR stock was already off by about 70% from a November 2013 peak, with things really accelerating lower over the past year, during which shares have been roughly halved. It’s not getting any better Thursday morning, with Express shares off nearly 15%.

As of this writing, Robert Martin did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.


Article printed from InvestorPlace Media, https://investorplace.com/2017/06/3-stocks-to-watch-on-thursday-dollar-general-corp-dg-box-inc-box-and-express-inc-expr/.

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