UPDATE: Citigroup Raises PT on Dollar General Following Standout 2Q13 EPS Report

In a report published Thursday, Citigroup analyst Deborah L. Weinswig reiterated a Buy rating on Dollar General Corp. DG, and raised the price target from $63.00 to $65.00. In the report, Citigroup noted, “DG's 2Q13 EPS report was a standout among the Broadlines retailers, as it was one of only two retailers (BIG was the other) to beat both our SSS and EPS estimates. The company experienced strong sequential improvement in traffic, sales, and market share. This gives us further conviction that DG should perform well in our C.H.E.A.P. consumer landscape. The company increased its guidance for 2013 new store openings and has a robust pipeline of new stores for 2014. In addition, initiatives like tobacco and Phase 5 are delivering better-than-expected SSS lifts. We had initially estimated the tobacco lift at +170 bps, and DG confirmed that the lift is running in the +100-200 bps range. We reiterate our Buy rating.” Dollar General Corp. closed on Wednesday at $56.39.