Home Depot (HD) – Get Report posted weaker-than-expected first-quarter earnings Tuesday while scrapping its 2020 profit guidance, as pre-tax costs to counter the coronavirus pandemic reached $850 million.
Home Depot said earnings for the three months ending in on May 3 were pegged at $2.08 per share, down 8.4% from the same period last year, and well shy of the Street consensus forecast of $2.27 per share. Group revenues, Home Depot said, rose 7.3% from last year to $28.3 billion, topping analysts’ forecasts of $27.53 billion tally.
Home Depot also suspended its full-year 2020 profit guidance, which had forecast comparable sales rising between 3.5% and 4.% and earnings of $10.45 per share.
«As the COVID-19 pandemic evolved, we anchored to the core values of our Company by focusing on two key priorities: working to ensure the safety and well-being of our associates and customers, and providing our customers and communities with essential products,» said CEO Craig Menear. «We took early and decisive action to intentionally limit customer traffic in our stores which we believe had a significant impact to sales in many markets.»
«Even with these actions, the robust and flexible interconnected infrastructure that we have invested in for over a decade allowed us to quickly adapt to changing customer preferences and achieve strong sales performance in the quarter,» he added. .
Home Depot shares were marked 1.6% lower in early trading following the earnings release to change hands at $241.01 each, a move that trims the stock’s year-to-date gain to around 10.4%.
TheStreet provided a guide for investors on where to buy Home Depot stock after reporting its financials today.
