...October 3, 2023 Dollar General's leverage remains above the company's 3.0x target. Worse-than-expected declines in demand due to normalizing supplemental nutrition assistance program (SNAP) benefits and lower tax returns for Dollar General's core customers has hindered the company's performance. Because this stress was specific to Dollar General's core customers, these were not offset by increased trade-down from higher income consumers. In addition, the company's inventory was poorly positioned for a meaningful decline in nonconsumable demand, and it saw record levels of shrink. The company reported leverage above their 3.0x debt to EBITDAR target. Leverage on a S&P Global Ratings-adjusted basis was 3.2x as of the end of the second quarter. We forecast leverage will end the fiscal year at 3.3x, still below our mid-3.0x downside threshold. We revised our forecast downward following weaker-than-expected operating performance in the first half of 2023. The revenues for the first six months...
