Home Depot Q2 Earnings Report: Home Improvement Retailer Sales Up, Beats Analysts’ Expectations

Home Depot (HD) has reported its second quarter earnings for fiscal 2019, showing some bright spots that sent its stock price up with the release of the report. Share prices were up over analyst predictions but down for revenue and same-sales earnings.

The company saw its sales increase by 1.2 percent in Q2 to $30.8 billion compared for the same time period last year. Comparable sales for the company were up 3 percent with comparable sales in the U.S. positive by 3.1 percent.

Analyst predictions indicated that Home Depot’s sales would come in at $30.99 billion with same-store sales reaching a 3.5 percent increase, CNBC reported.

Home Depot also reported net earnings of $3.5 billion for a diluted share price of $3.17 compared to $3.05 per diluted share for Q2 2018. This is an increase of 3.9 percent for the second quarter of 2019. Analysts’ estimates put Home Depot’s share prices at $3.08, the news outlet said.

“We are encouraged by the momentum we are seeing from our strategic investments and believe that the current health of the U.S. consumer and a stable housing environment continue to support our business,” Craig Menear, chairman, CEO and president at Home Depot said.

“That being said, lumber prices have declined significantly compared to last year, which impacts our sales growth. As a result, today we are updating our 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. We are reaffirming our earnings-per-share growth guidance for fiscal 2019.”

The updated guidance for Home Depot for fiscal 2019 sales is expected to increase by approximately 2.3 percent with comparable sales to be up about 4.0 percent. The company also said it expects its diluted earnings per share to be up approximately 3.1 percent from fiscal 2018 to $10.03 per share.

Home Depot has 2,291 stores through the North and South America. It employs more than 400,000 workers.

Shares of Home Depot stock were up 4.51 percent as of 10:37 a.m. ET on Tuesday.