Worth having a look at free cash flow vs EPS.
https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/DG/dolla...

Bear in mind that the definition they are using of free cash flow is "operating cash flow minus capital expenditures".
As free cash flow is usually used as a proxy for money being generated, this definition implicitly assumes that the firm in question is doing no expansion capex: that it is all maintenance capex.
If you wanted to juice that number, just stop spending on expansion!

DG does a huge amount of expansion capex, so that definition gives a rather non-obvious view of things.
Have a glance at DG's cash flow statement. Last year their depreciation & amortization line is only 46% of their purchases of property and equipment.
Thus the crude estimate is that their expansion capex was 54% of all capex = $836m.
D&A was 53.4% of P&E capex in the first half.

Jim

Berkshire Hathaway FAQ

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