Key things
- Home Depot ( HD ) reported fourth quarter and fiscal 2022 results on February 21, 2023.
- The home goods retailer missed expectations on revenue and comparable store sales, although earnings per share (EPS) beat estimates.
- Sales forecasts for 2023 also fell short of analysts’ estimates, sending shares lower.
Home Depot (HD) was the worst-performing stock in the Dow as the largest home accessories retailer reported weaker-than-expected quarterly sales and warned against full-year growth.
Home Depot reported revenue rose 0.3% to $35.8 billion comparable store sales decreased by 0.3%. Both were below estimates. Customer transactions fell 6% and sales per retail square foot fell 0.1%. Earnings per share (EPS) $3.30 beat forecasts.
CEO Edward Decker noted that due to high inflation, rising interest rates, a tight labor market and softening equity in the housing markets, “we expect demand for housing improvements to soften.”
Guidance error estimates
The company expects 2023 revenue and comparable store sales to be about the same as 2022. Analysts had expected a modest gain. It said EPS was expected to fall by a mid-single-digit percentage, while estimates had called for flat profit.
The company also announced that it is increasing its quarterly dividend by $0.19 to $2.09 and will spend $1 billion this year to raise wages for its hourly workers.
Shares of Home Depot fell 7% on Feb. 21 and have lost 14% over the past year.
YCharts
