Consumer Discretionary

CFRA, an independent research provider, has provided MT Newswires with the following research alert. Analysts at CFRA have summarized their opinion as follows: Our 12-month target price of $338, up $11, is 22x our FY 25 (Jan.) EPS of $15.36 (down $0.20; FY 26 started at $16.55), a premium to the 10-year forward P/E of 20.6x. FQ4 (Jan.) EPS of $2.82 (-15% Y/Y) beat by $0.05 on revenue of $34.8B (-3% Y/Y), $110M above consensus. Comparable sales declined 3.5% on lower transactions (-2% Y/Y) and lower average tickets (-1% Y/Y). Pro and Do-It-Yourself segment performance was even relative to each other. Big-ticket transactions declined 6.9% Y/Y. HD guides to 1% sales growth and 1% comp. sale decline with a 53rd week lifting sales by $2.3B in FY 24. Comp sales are projected to outperform the low-single-digit industry decline warranting our P/E. EBIT margin guide of 14.1% (-10 BPS Y/Y) yields

Home Depot is expecting to see a lower degree of macroeconomic pressure in fiscal 2024 than it did last year, CFO Richard McPhail tells WSJ. “We believe our market is on its way back to normalcy,” he says. The home improvement chain is still anticipating headwinds and guiding for a 1% drop in comparable sales this year, but that would be a smaller decline than it saw in 2023. Home improvement spending is still moderating from outsized growth during the pandemic, when low interest rates, rising home values and looser spending habits pushed more people to invest in their homes.

The following is a summary of the The Home Depot, Inc. (HD) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript: Financial Performance: Home Depot reported fiscal 2023 sales of $152.7 billion, a 3% decline from the previous year. Comp sales and U.S. store sales also declined by 3.2% and 3.5% respectively. Diluted earnings per share amounted to $15.11, compared to $16.69 of last year. The company’s Q4 sales were $34.8 billion, seeing a decrease of 2.9% from the previous fiscal year. Q4 gross margin was 33.1%, decreasing 20 basis points from last year, and gross margin for the year was 33.4%, a drop of 15 basis points from the prior year. Despite the decreased sales, the company managed to invest $3.2 billion back into the business, and returned $8 billion to shareholders in form of share repurchases. Business Progress: The company invested $1 billion in annualised compensation for frontline hourly associates, highlighting its

Goldman Sachs analyst Kate McShane reiterated a Buy rating on Home Depot, Inc (NYSE:HD) with a price target of $393. Home Depot reported fourth-quarter fiscal 2023 EPS of $2.82, above McShane’s estimate of $2.79 and Wall Street’s estimate of $2.77. Net sales decreased 2.9% year-on-year to $34.8 billion versus McShane, and the Wall Street consensus of $34.8 billion and $34.6 billion as comparable sales decreased 3.5% Y/Y, below McShane’s estimate of -3.0% and consensus of -3.3%. During the quarter, Home Depot experienced declines in both average tickets (-1.3% Y/Y) and transactions (-1.7% Y/Y), and McShane noted that comparable sales in the U.S. decreased by 4.0% Y/Y. Home Depot’s operating margin decreased 135 bps Y/Y to 11.9% against McShane and the Wall Street estimate of 11.8% and 11.9% as gross margin decreased 20 bps Y/Y to 33.1% while total operating expenses as a % of sales increased 115 bps Y/Y to 21.2%. Management provided

Home Depot (HD) reported fiscal Q4 earnings Tuesday of $2.82 per diluted share, down from $3.30 a year earlier. Analysts polled by Capital IQ expected $2.78. Net sales for the quarter that ended Jan. 28 were $34.79 billion, down from $35.83 billion a year earlier. Analysts surveyed by Capital IQ expected $34.67 billion. For the 53 weeks of its fiscal 2024, the hardware store chain said it expects approximately 1% of diluted earnings per share growth and 1% in total sales growth. Analysts surveyed by Capital IQ expect earnings of $15.07 per diluted share on revenue of $152.55 billion. The company also raised its quarterly dividend to $2.25 per share from $2.09 per share, payable on March 21 to shareholders of record as of March 7.