Dollarama's second-quarter profit, sales beat expectations

Dollarama Inc. topped expectations as it reported a second-quarter profit of $142.5 million and a 7% increase in sales compared with a year ago.

The retailer says the profit amounted to 46 cents per diluted share for the quarter ended Aug. 2 compared with a profit of $143.2 million or 45 cents per diluted share in the same quarter a year earlier when it had more shares outstanding.

Sales in the quarter totalled $1.01 billion, up from $946 million a year ago, boosted by an increase in its number of stores and higher sales of summer seasonal items as well as household and cleaning products.

Analysts on average had expected a profit of 42 cents per share and $975.7 million in revenue, according to financial markets data firm Refinitiv.

Comparable store sales excluding temporarily closed stores grew 5.4%, while comparable store sales including temporarily closed stores rose 2.5%.

Dollarama says the average transaction size rose 41.7%, but there was a 25.7% drop in the number of transactions as customers reduced how often they shopped, but bought more when they did.