Home Depot Lowers FY19 Sales Guidance On Continued Lumber Price Deflation

(RTTNews) - The Home Depot (HD), a home improvement retailer, updated its guidance for fiscal 2019, a 52-week year. The company now projects sales to grow by approximately 2.3 percent and comp sales to be up approximately 4.0 percent. In May, the company projected fiscal 2019 sales to grow by approximately 3.3 percent and comp sales to be up approximately 5.0 percent. However, the company reaffirmed its earnings-per-share growth guidance for fiscal 2019.

"Lumber prices have declined significantly compared to last year, which impacts our sales growth. As a result, we updated sales guidance to account primarily for continued lumber price deflation, as well as potential impacts to the U.S. consumer arising from recently announced tariffs," said Craig Menear, CEO.

For the second quarter, earnings per share increased 3.9 percent to $3.17 from prior year. On average, 28 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to report profit per share of $3.08, for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

Second-quarter sales were $30.8 billion, up 1.2 percent from a year ago. Comparable sales were positive 3.0 percent, and comparable sales in the U.S. were positive 3.1 percent. Analysts expected revenue of $30.98 billion for the quarter.