MONTREAL -- Dollarama Inc. shares fell six per cent in Thursday trading after the discount retailer said cool spring weather hurt sales of seasonal goods that are a key driver of revenues in April.

The Montreal-based company's shares lost $9.38 at $147.10 in midday trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange. The decrease came as the company missed analyst expectations even though first-quarter profits increased to $101.6 million from $94.7 million last year.

Dollarama's net income amounted to 92 cents per diluted share, up from 82 cents per share in last year's fiscal first quarter.

Sales for the 13 weeks ended April 29 were $756.1 million, up 7.3 per cent from $704.9 million in the comparable period a year earlier.

The company's adjusted earnings also came in at 92 cents per share, just short of the 93 cents per share it was expected to earn on $776.6 million of revenues, according to analysts polled by Thomson Reuters Eikon.

Comparable store sales grew 2.6 per cent from last year, while the number of stores grew by 62 locations to 1,170. Excluding the impact on seasonal goods such as gardening items, same-store sales were within its forecast of four to five per cent.

The company said sales normalized with the warmer May weather.

Analyst Irene Nattel of RBC Capital Markets said the results are best viewed as a blip on Dollarama's consistent trajectory of 15 to 20 per cent earnings per share increases.

"We remain confident in Dollarama's ability to continue to deliver EPS compounded growth approaching 20 per cent over our forecast horizon," she wrote in a report.

The discount retailer said its cost control efforts and productivity improvements had reduced overhead costs as a percentage of sales and mitigated the impact of minimum wage increases, which went into effect in Ontario on Jan. 1.

Shareholders on Thursday approved a three-for-one stock split effective June 19, designed to make the company's shares more accessible to small investors.

The annual meeting saw Dollarama founder Larry Rossy step down as executive chairman, although he is expected to remain a mentor and continue showing up at the company's headquarters, said his son Neil who is chief executive.