Most companies would kill for the kind of numbers Family Dollar (FDO) reported Thursday, but still the stock fell. Shares closed down nearly 3% to $67.20 Thursday afternoon.

The numbers point to a great quarter. Profit rose 12%, revenue rose 10% and customer traffic rose 5%. Retail isn't giving those kinds of numbers lately, and yet still investors were disappointed.

But in this shaky economy, Wall Street thought Family Dollar's numbers would be a little higher. Analysts wanted to see profit of $1.07 a share (the company reported $1.06) on revenue of $2.37 billion (the company reported $2.36 billion). There's no reason for shares to be down so much with that slim miss.

Family Dollar's guidance set off some alarms as well. For the current quarter, the company said it expects a profit of 71 cents to 81 cents a share on sales growth of 5% to 7%. That works out to about sales of $2.24 billion to $2.28 billion. Analysts are looking for 77 cents a share on $2.36 billion.

Check out this video on what to buy and what to avoid at dollar stores.

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But full-year guidance looks pretty good. The company is expecting a profit of $3.60 to $3.70 a share (analysts are expecting $3.67) and sales growth of 9% to 10%. That works out to about $9.32 billion to $9.41 billion in sales (analysts are expecting $9.34 billion).

I think investors should be pleased as punch that Family Dollar can pull in these kinds of numbers in the current economy. But no, they took down the stock as well as those of other dollar stores. Dollar Tree (DLTR) fell 2.4% to close at $52.18, and Dollar General (DG) fell less than 1% to close at $53.73.

Analysts simply set their expectations too high. And some of them seemed to concede that after seeing Family Dollar's earnings. Analyst Mark Montagna of Avondale Partners kept his $77 price target on the stock, saying he expects the company to make progress in closing the sales and margin gap with Dollar General, Barron's reports.

Family Dollar has been trying to compete harder with other chains, and has added cigarettes, Pepsi drinks, magazines and more health and beauty items, Reuters reports.

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