Home Depot Q2 Profit Tops Street; Ups FY13 Forecast - Quick Facts

(RTTNews) - Home improvement retailer Home Depot, Inc.'s (HD) second-quarter net earnings advanced to $1.8 billion, or $1.24 per share, from last year's $1.5 billion, or $1.01 per share, reported a year back. On average, 26 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected earnings per share of $1.21 for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude one-time items.

The firm clocked sales of $22.52 billion for the quarter, down 9.5%, compared with the prior-year figure of $20.57 billion. Analysts estimated revenues of $21.80 billion for the quarter. On a like-for-like basis, quarterly comparable-store sales were positive 10.7 percent, and comp sales for U.S. stores were positive 11.4 percent. Total sales rose 9.5 percent from the second quarter of fiscal 2012. Due to the 14th week in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2012, second-quarter sales were impacted by a calendar timing change that resulted in one less week of spring sales in the second quarter when compared with the same period of fiscal 2012. This shift reduced total sales growth by about $249 million or 120 basis points.

For fiscal 2013, Home Depot boosted its sales outlook, now expecting it to be up around 4.5 percent with comparable-store sales up about 6.0 percent for the year. Also, the company raised its fiscal 2013 earnings-per-share guidance, now projecting earnings per share to be up about 20 percent to $3.60 for the year. Analysts project annual earnings of $3.64 per share.

Earlier, full-year earnings per share were anticipated to increase about 17 percent to $3.52, and sales to be up around 2.8 percent, with comparable store sales growth of nearly 4 percent.