The Home Depot Announces First Quarter Results; Updates Fiscal Year 2014 Guidance

The Home Depot®, the world's largest home improvement retailer, today reported first quarter of fiscal 2014 net earnings of $1.4 billion, or $1.00 per diluted share, compared with net earnings of $1.2 billion, or $0.83 per diluted share, in the same period of fiscal 2013. For the first quarter of fiscal 2014, diluted earnings per share increased 20.5 percent from the same period in the prior year.

First quarter of fiscal 2014 results reflect a benefit to earnings, net of tax, of $61 million, or $0.04 per diluted share, related to the sale of a portion of the company's equity ownership in HD Supply Holdings, Inc.

Total sales for the first quarter of fiscal 2014 were $19.7 billion, a 2.9 percent increase from the first quarter of fiscal 2013. Comparable store sales for the first quarter of fiscal 2014 were positive 2.6 percent, and comp sales for the U.S. stores were positive 3.3 percent.

"The first quarter was impacted by a slow start to the spring selling season. But we had solid results in non-weather impacted markets and expect our sales for the year to grow in line with the guidance we previously provided," said Frank Blake, chairman and CEO. "I would like to thank our associates for their hard work and dedication."

The Company reaffirmed that it expects fiscal 2014 sales will be up approximately 4.8 percent from fiscal 2013. The Company raised its fiscal 2014 diluted earnings-per-share guidance and now expects diluted earnings-per-share to be up approximately 17.6 percent to $4.42 for the year. This earnings-per-share guidance includes the $0.04 per diluted share benefit related to the sale of HD Supply common stock, the benefit of the Company's year-to-date share repurchases and the Company's intent to repurchase $3.75 billion in additional shares over the remainder of the year.

The Home Depot will conduct a conference call today at 9 a.m. ET to discuss information included in this news release and related matters. The conference call will be available in its entirety through a webcast and replay at earnings.homedepot.com.

At the end of the first quarter, the Company operated a total of 2,263 retail stores in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, 10 Canadian provinces and Mexico. The Company employs more than 300,000 associates. The Home Depot's stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: HD) and is included in the Dow Jones industrial average and Standard & Poor's 500 index.

Certain statements contained herein constitute "forward-looking statements" as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements may relate to, among other things, the demand for our products and services; net sales growth; comparable store sales; effects of competition; state of the economy; state of the residential construction, housing and home improvement markets; state of the credit markets, including mortgages, home equity loans and consumer credit; inventory and in-stock positions; implementation of store, interconnected retail and supply chain initiatives; management of relationships with our suppliers and vendors; continuation of share repurchase programs; net earnings performance; earnings per share; dividend targets; capital allocation and expenditures; liquidity; return on invested capital; expense leverage; stock-based compensation expense; commodity price inflation and deflation; the ability to issue debt on terms and at rates acceptable to us; the effect of accounting charges; the effect of adopting certain accounting standards; store openings and closures; guidance for fiscal 2014 and beyond; and financial outlook.  Forward-looking statements are based on currently available information and our current assumptions, expectations and projections about future events. You should not rely on our forward-looking statements. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to future events, risks and uncertainties – many of which are beyond our control or are currently unknown to us – as well as potentially inaccurate assumptions that could cause actual results to differ materially from our expectations and projections. These risks and uncertainties include but are not limited to those described in Item 1A, "Risk Factors," and elsewhere in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for our fiscal year ended February 2, 2014 and in our subsequent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q.

Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made, and we do not undertake to update these statements other than as required by law. You are advised, however, to review any further disclosures we make on related subjects in our periodic filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Source: The Home Depot