Discount retail company Dollar Tree Inc. (NASDAQ:$DLTR) saw its stock go up as much as 9% during pre-market trading on Thursday, August 24th. The rise was most likely due to the fact that the company’s second quarter earnings report had exceeded average analysts’ expectations. For its second quarter, Dollar Tree reported an income of $233.8 million, or an earnings of around $0.98 per share. Sales hit $5.28 billion. Both earnings per share and sales exceeded analysts’ expectations. Analysts from financial research and software company FactSet (NYSE:$FDS) had expected, on average, an earnings per share of $0.83 and a sales of $5.24 billion. As of 1:45 PM EDT on Thursday, August 24th, Dollar Tree’s stock has increased by 8.45% to be at $80.60.

For its upcoming third quarter, Dollar Tree has an expectation of an earnings per share of between $0.83 and $0.90 and a sales of around $5.20 billion to $5.29 billion. On average, analysts from FactSet expects an earnings per share of $0.87 and a sales of $5.27 billion for Dollar Tree’s third quarter. For the 2017 fiscal year, Dollar Tree expects an earnings per share of between $4.44 to $4.60 and a sales of around $22.07 billion to $22.28 billion. FactSet analysts expects an earnings per share of $4.46 and a sales of $22.13 billion for Dollar Tree’s full year, on average.

The strong earnings report and positive reactions towards Dollar Tree was no doubt a great boost for the company, given that its stock had actually decreased by 3.7% so far this year – excluding Thursday, August 24th.

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