Home Depot Beats Profit Target

The home improvement retailer beats Wall Street estimates by 4 cents a share.

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Home Depot

delivered better-than expected adjusted quarterly earnings early Tuesday despite a slump in profit and sales.

The Atlanta-based home improvement retailer posted fiscal first-quarter net earnings of $356 million, or 21 cents a share, compared with $1 billion, or 53 cents a share, in the same period a year ago. Excluding a $543 million nonrecurring charge related to the closing of 15 stores and removal of 50 stores from the future growth pipeline, the company earned $697 million, or 41 cents a share.

The adjusted results beat the 37 cents EPS analysts were looking for, according to Thomson Reuters data.

Home Depot generated first-quarter sales of $17.9 billion, down 3.4% from the year-ago quarter and reflecting negative comparable store sales of 6.5%. Analysts were looking fro revenue of $17.61 billion, according to Thomson Reuters.

"The housing and home improvement markets remained difficult in the first quarter; in fact, conditions worsened in many areas of the country," said CEO Frank Blake in the company's earnings release.

"Our decision to close stores and remove planned stores from our pipeline demonstrates our commitment to disciplined capital allocation. This discipline and reinvestment in our existing stores will benefit our shareholders, associates and customers," Blake said.