Home Depot Lowers Sales Outlook, Shares Fall

By Patrick Thomas 

Home Depot Inc. lowered its sales forecast for the year on Tuesday as the company reported higher fiscal third-quarter revenue, but fell short of Wall Street expectations.

Sales at the Atlanta company rose 3.5% from a year ago to $27.22 billion, slightly lower than the $27.53 billion Wall Street was expecting, according to FactSet.

Same-store sales were up 3.6% for the period, below the 4.7% analysts were expecting.

Shares of the company were off about 5.8% during premarket trading. The company's stock is up about 39% this year.

The home-improvement retailer reported net income of $2.77 billion, or $2.53 a share for the period ended Nov. 3, compared with $2.87 billion, or $2.51 a share, a year ago. Analysts surveyed by FactSet were expecting earnings of $2.52 a share.

The number of customer transactions was up 1.5% from a year ago, while the amount of money customers spent per visit rose 1.9%.

The home-improvement retailer said it expects fiscal 2019 sales growth to increase by 1.8%, down from its previous guidance of 2.3%. Same-store sales are projected to grow by about 3.5%, lower than its previous forecast of 4%.

"Sales were below our expectations driven by the timing of certain benefits associated with our One Home Depot strategic investments," Chief Executive Craig Menear said in a press release.

Write to Patrick Thomas at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 19, 2019 06:56 ET (11:56 GMT)

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