Dollar Stores Buck The Sinking Trend --thestreet.com

Think no one can compete with Wal-Mart ? Think again! Consider the rinky-dink dollar store. By marrying two seemingly incompatible ideas -- convenience and value -- the age-old concept has struck a chord with consumers and investors alike. Now, with earnings and sales growing as never before, the overlooked dollar store is suddenly retail's hottest concept.

"Within the discount sector, the dollar stores occupy a convenience niche," says Michael Baker, who follows dollar stores for Deutsche Bank Securities. "As Wal-Mart rolls out bigger and bigger stores, we think there is an opportunity for smaller-box stores." Good as Gold The industry has successfully grown sales while going head-to-head with discount giants Wal-Mart, Target and Kmart The dollar-store group boasts the second-highest sales growth rate in all of retail, just behind Kohl's, the discounter-department store hybrid whose growth and stock price seem to have no limit.

Overall, the industry is slated to grow sales at an average annual clip of 17%, just below the 19% projected growth rate for Kohl's, according to Merrill Lynch, which recently published a voluminous 111-page treatise on why investors should dive into dollar-store stocks. Earnings are projected to grow at a robust annual rate north of 20% for most of these outfits. That said, these little companies have done what few people thought was possible. What about the mantra that no one can compete with Wal-Mart on price? Toss it out the window. Consider this: About 65% of Dollar General and Family Dollar stores are within a five-mile radius of a Wal-Mart -- yet both have consistently reported solid gains in comparable-store sales, which measure activity in shops open at least a year, according to Merrill. As a result, Dollar Tree has risen 24% this year, 99 Cents Only has jumped 12% and Family Dollar has added 20%. Going by price-to-earnings figures, the group now trades at a 24% premium to the S&P 500 -- yet the sectorwide premium is lower than it was before the late-1990s bubble, Merrill notes. In 1997-98, the stocks commanded a 30% to 40% premium to the market.

"Valuations have not recovered back to their former highs," wrote Merrill's Barry, "yet we feel the fundamentals justify a return to such levels, barring another tech bubble." These days, a return of the tech bubble seems a far-out proposition indeed.

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