The Home Depot Announces First Quarter Results; Reaffirms Fiscal Year 2019 Guidance

ATLANTA, May 21, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- The Home Depot^®, the world's largest home improvement retailer, today reported sales of $26.4 billion for the first quarter of fiscal 2019, a 5.7 percent increase from the first quarter of fiscal 2018. Comparable sales for the first quarter of fiscal 2019 were positive 2.5 percent, and comparable sales in the U.S. were positive 3.0 percent. In the first quarter, the difference between the Company's sales growth and comparable sales performance reflects a shift in the calendar base due to 53 weeks of sales in fiscal 2018.

Net earnings for the first quarter of fiscal 2019 were $2.5 billion, or $2.27 per diluted share, compared with net earnings of $2.4 billion, or $2.08 per diluted share, in the same period of fiscal 2018. For the first quarter of fiscal 2019, diluted earnings per share increased 9.1 percent from the same period in the prior year.

"We were pleased with the underlying performance of the core business despite unfavorable weather in February and significant deflation in lumber prices compared to a year ago," said Craig Menear, chairman, CEO and president.

"Looking ahead, we remain excited about the momentum we are seeing with our strategic investments. As a result of these initiatives, and the current macroeconomic and housing backdrop, today we are reaffirming our sales and earnings guidance for fiscal 2019. I would like to thank our associates for their hard work and continued dedication to our customers."

Fiscal 2019 Guidance

The Company reaffirmed its guidance for fiscal 2019, a 52-week year compared to fiscal 2018, a 53-week year. The Company expects its fiscal 2019 sales to grow by approximately 3.3 percent and comp sales for the comparable 52-week period to be up approximately 5.0 percent. The Company also reaffirmed its diluted earnings-per-share growth guidance for the year and expects diluted earnings-per-share growth of approximately 3.1 percent from fiscal 2018 to $10.03.

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 http://ir.homedepot.com/events-and-presentations.

At the end of the first quarter, the Company operated a total of 2,289 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 400,000 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 sales; effects of competition; implementation of store, interconnected retail, supply chain and technology initiatives; inventory and in-stock positions; state of the economy; state of the housing and home improvement markets; state of the credit markets, including mortgages, home equity loans and consumer credit; issues related to the payment methods we accept; demand for credit offerings; management of relationships with our associates, 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 impact and expected outcome of investigations, inquiries, claims and litigation; the effect of accounting charges; the effect of adopting certain accounting standards; the impact of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 and other regulatory changes; store openings and closures; guidance for fiscal 2019 and beyond; financial outlook; and the integration of acquired companies into our organization and the ability to recognize the anticipated synergies and benefits of those acquisitions.  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, dependent on the actions of third parties, 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 3, 2019 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