The Home Depot Provides Update on Strategic Objectives and More

The Home Depot^®, the world’s largest home improvement retailer, will discuss key strategic priorities, as well as provide a market stability base case, today at its 2023 Investor and Analyst Conference. 

Today’s conference will begin at 9 a.m. ET and will be available in its entirety through a live webcast and replay at ir.homedepot.com/events-and-presentations.

During today’s conference, the company will discuss its strategic priorities to deliver the best customer experience in home improvement, develop differentiated capabilities and extend its low-cost provider position.

“While a lot has changed in the environment and our business since our last Investor and Analyst Conference, our objectives to grow market share and deliver exceptional shareholder value remain unchanged, and our culture and values remain our guideposts,” said Ted Decker, chair, president, and CEO. “Investments we’ve made over the last several years have further strengthened our distinct competitive advantages and enabled agility in our operating model.”

“We operate in a large and highly fragmented market with unique characteristics that make it one of the most attractive sectors in retail, if not the economy as a whole. While we are the number one home improvement retailer in the world, we have a relatively small share of the market today, and there are significant opportunities in front of us,” said Decker.

Fiscal Year 2023 Outlook

The company reaffirmed its guidance for fiscal 2023:

• Sales and comparable sales to decline between 2% and 5% compared to fiscal 2022
• Operating margin rate to be between 14.3% and 14.0%
• Tax rate of approximately 24.5%
• Interest expense of approximately $1.8 billion
• Diluted earnings-per-share-percent-decline between 7% and 13% compared to fiscal 2022

Market Stability Base Case

Today the company provided a Market Stability Base Case outlook:

• The overall home improvement market to grow by low-single digits
• Sales growth between 3% and 4% per year
• Maintain flat gross margin rate
• Operating margin expansion driven by a combination of sales leverage and productivity
• Mid-to-high-single-digit diluted earnings-per-share growth

“Once the home improvement market returns to stability, we expect to see sales growth consistent with how our business has performed in the past,” said Richard McPhail, executive vice president and chief financial officer. “While the base case assumes share capture, we are not ruling out a case for even higher growth. In our Accelerated Growth Case, we would expect sales and earnings per share to grow faster than the Market Stability Base Case.”

About The Home Depot

At the end of the first quarter of fiscal 2023, the company operated a total of 2,324 retail stores in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, 10 Canadian provinces and Mexico. The Company employs approximately 475,000 associates. The Home Depot’s stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: HD) and is included in the Dow Jones industrial average and Standard & Poor’s 500 index.

Source: The Home Depot