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The company's shares rose 1.2% premarket in a weak broader
market, as the largest U.S. home improvement chain also boosted
its quarterly dividend by 15%.
Spending on do-it-yourself home projects - which surged at the
height of the health crisis when people were stuck indoors - has
so far held up better than feared even as restrictions ease and
encourage a return to pre-pandemic lifestyles.
Home Depot's sales have jumped more than $40 billion in the last
two years, notching up more than $150 billion in annual sales
for the first time ever in the year ended January 2022.
The company has been aggressively spending to minimize shortages
due to global supply-chain disruptions, chartering a cargo ship
to beat the pandemic-driven shipping delays.
Overall net sales rose 10.7% to $35.72 billion in the fourth
quarter, beating analysts' average estimate of $34.87 billion,
according to IBES data from Refinitiv.
Still, Home Depot's full-year outlook was less detailed than its
pre-pandemic forecasts. The company projected sales growth to be
"slightly positive" and earnings-per-share-growth to be low
single digits.
Analysts have warned of the difficulty in predicting what 2022
could be like for home improvement chains as rising mortgage
rates and inflation threaten to hit housing demand and prices,
potentially making customers less likely to invest in their
homes.
Same-store sales at Home Depot rose 8.1% in the fourth quarter,
compared with analysts' estimates of a 4.9% increase.
The company earned $3.21 per share, while analysts had expected
a profit of $3.18.
(Reporting by Uday Sampath and Aditi Sebastian in Bengaluru;
Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)
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