The Home Depot Announces Third Quarter Resul

ATLANTA, Nov. 13, 2012 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ --The Home Depot ^® , the world's largest home improvement retailer, today reported sales of $18.1 billion for the third quarter of fiscal 2012, a 4.6 percent increase from the third quarter of fiscal 2011. Comparable store sales for the third quarter of fiscal 2012 were positive 4.2 percent, and comp sales for U.S. stores were positive 4.3 percent.

Net earnings for the third quarter were $947 million , or $0.63 per diluted share, compared with net earnings of $934 million , or $0.60 per diluted share, in the same period of fiscal 2011. These results reflect a nonrecurring charge of approximately $165 million , net of tax, or $0.11 per diluted share due to the previously announced closing of seven stores in China . On an adjusted basis, the Company reported net earnings of $1.1 billion , or $0.74 per diluted share, a 23.3 percent increase from the same period in the prior year.

"Our third-quarter results were better than we expected and reflected, in part, what we believe is the start of the path toward the healing of the housing market," said Frank Blake , chairman & CEO. "I particularly want to thank all of our associates who are helping the communities impacted by Hurricane Sandy. They are working under difficult circumstances, often with their own lives and homes disrupted by the storm, and their efforts exemplify our core values."

Updated Fiscal 2012 Guidance

Based on its performance through the third quarter, the Company updated its fiscal 2012 guidance and raised its sales growth guidance to be up approximately 5.2 percent for the year on a 53-week basis. The Company expects fiscal 2012 diluted earnings per share to be up approximately 18 percent to $2.92 for the year.

On an adjusted basis, the Company raised its diluted earnings per share growth guidance to be up approximately 23 percent to $3.03 excluding the $0.11 per diluted share impact related to the closing of seven stores in China .

This earnings-per-share guidance includes the benefit of the Company's year-to-date share repurchases and the Company's intent to repurchase $700 million in additional shares in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2012, which will bring the total dollar amount of shares repurchased to $4 billion for the year.

The Home Depot will conduct a conference call today at 9 a.m. ET to discuss information included in this news release and related matters. The conference call will be available in its entirety through a webcast and replay at earnings.homedepot.com.

At the end of the third quarter, the Company operated a total of 2,250 retail stores in all 50 states, the District of Columbia , Puerto Rico , U.S. Virgin Islands , Guam , 10 Canadian provinces and Mexico .

The Company employs more than 300,000 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.

To provide clarity, internally and externally, about the Company's operating performance for recently completed fiscal periods, the Company has supplemented its reporting with non-GAAP financial measures to reflect the impact of the charges related to the closing of seven stores in China . The Company believes that these non-GAAP financial measures better enable management and investors to understand and analyze the Company's performance by providing them with meaningful information relevant to events of unusual nature or frequency that impact the comparability of underlying business results from period to period. However, this supplemental information should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for the related GAAP measures. A reconciliation of the non-GAAP financial measures to the comparable GAAP measures can be found attached to this press release and at http://earnings.homedepot.com .

Certain statements contained herein constitute "forward-looking statements" as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements may relate to, among other things, the demand for our products and services, net sales growth, comparable store sales, state of the economy, state of the residential construction, housing and home improvement markets, state of the credit markets, including mortgages, home equity loans and consumer credit, inventory and in-stock positions, commodity price inflation and deflation, implementation of store and supply chain initiatives, continuation of share repurchase programs, net earnings performance, earnings per share, capital allocation and expenditures, liquidity, return on invested capital, management of relationships with our suppliers and vendors, stock-based compensation expense, the effect of accounting charges, the effect of adopting certain accounting standards, the ability to issue debt on terms and at rates acceptable to us, store openings and closures, expense leverage, guidance for fiscal 2012 and beyond and financial outlook. Forward-looking statements are based on currently available information and our current assumptions, expectations and projections about future events. You should not rely on our forward-looking statements. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to future events, risks and uncertainties – many of which are beyond our control or are currently unknown to us – as well as potentially inaccurate assumptions that could cause actual results to differ materially from our expectations and projections. These risks and uncertainties include but are not limited to those described in Item 1A, "Risk Factors," and elsewhere in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for our fiscal year ended January 29, 2012 and in our subsequent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q.

Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made, and we do not undertake to update these statements other than as required by law. You are advised, however, to review any further disclosures we make on related subjects in our periodic filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.