Home Depot is falling more than 4% in pre-market trading after reporting revenue and same-store sales that missed analysts’ expectations. The company acknowledged that first-quarter results marked a “slow start” to the spring selling season. A longer winter stunted sales of spring products like patio furniture and lawn mowers according to a Reuters report.
The American home-improvement store reported revenue of $24.9 billion, missing the $25.17 billion that analysts surveyed by Bloomberg expected. Same-store sales came in at 4.2%, short of the 5.38% forecast by Thomson Reuters. However, the company reported earnings of $2.08 per share which beat analysts $2.05 per share prediction.
Customer traffic to stores fell 1.3% and the company linked the drop in attendance to cooler temperatures in February, March, and April according to Reuters.
“Outside of our seasonal business, we had solid results in all markets and categories and are seeing strong momentum in all lines of business during these first few weeks of May,” CEO Craig Menear said in a press release. “These trends, as well as a favorable housing and macroeconomic backdrop, give us confidence to reaffirm our sales and earnings guidance for fiscal 2018.”
As previously guided, Home Depot sees fiscal 2018 same-store sales to be up 5% and for sales to grow by 6.7%. The company also predicts earnings per share growth at around 28% year-over-year which puts diluted earnings-per-share growth at $9.31.
Home Depot is down 0.82% this year.
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