Home Depot reported net earnings of $1.4 billion, or $1 per diluted share, compared with net earnings of $1.2 billion, or $0.83 per diluted share, in the same period of fiscal 2013. Total sales for the first quarter of fiscal 2014 were $19.7 billion, a 2.9 percent increase from the first quarter of fiscal 2013, and same-store sales rose 2.6 percent over the same period.
Slower-than-anticipated sales in some Home Depot stores, caused by a weather-related slow start to the spring selling season, were at least partially offset by solid results in warmer-weather markets, said Frank Blake, chairman and CEO. The company reaffirmed that it expects full fiscal 2014 sales to be up a projected 4.8 percent from the previous year.
Economists and retail industry analysts have expressed concern over the impact of the unusually harsh winter on consumer spending, which drives 70 percent of the American economy. But some companies have defied the gloomy expectations. And all of the counties in southwest and west-central Ohio — including Montgomery, Clark, Greene, Miami, Butler, Warren and Preble counties — reported an increase in sales-tax collections during the first two months of 2014 despite the winter storms and frigid temperatures.
Home Depot operates 2,263 retail stores in all 50 states, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, 10 Canadian provinces and Mexico, employing more than 300,000.
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