Home Depot Q1 sales rise 5% despite headwinds
The Home Depot got a sales lift in April fueled by strong demand in its spring-related and “pro” categories.
The home improvement giant’s first-quarter sales gain, which beat Wall Street expectations, came despite continued pressure from housing affordability and cautious consumer spending around large discretionary projects.
Home Depot reported net income of $3.29 billion, or $3.30 per share, for the quarter ended May 3, compared with $3.43 billion, or $3.45 per share, in the year-ago period. Adjusted earnings per share were $3.43, just ahead of analyst estimates of $3.41 per share.
Sales rose 4.8% to $41.77 billion. Analysts had expected sales of $41.52 billion.
Comparable store sales increased 0.6%. In the U.S., comp sales climbed 0.4%. The company said it marked its fourth straight quarter of double digit year-over-year growth in online comp sales.
Customer transactions were down 1.3% in the quarter. But the average customer receipt increased to $92.76 from $90.71 a year ago.
“The underlying demand in our business was relatively similar to what we saw throughout fiscal 2025, despite greater consumer uncertainty and housing affordability pressure,” stated Ted Decker, chair, president and CEO.
On the earnings call, Decker said that Home Depot’s core customer remains in “reasonably good shape,” citing homeownership, home equity gains and equity market appreciation, but uncertainty continues to hold customers back from large projects. At the same time, housing turnover remains low and new construction starts and sales are trending down.
Last week, Home Depot’s SRS subsidiary completed its acquisition of Mingledorff’s, a wholesale distributor of heating, ventilation and air conditioning equipment serving residential and commercial customers through 42 locations in five Southeastern states. The acquisition came as the retailer has been expanding its offerings and capabilities to better serve contractors and other home professional customers as it looks to increase its pro business.
“Mingledorff gives us an incredible opportunity to penetrate the national market for HVAC parts and supplies, leveraging the power of our enterprise to create a superior value proposition for the pro customer,” Decker said on the earnings call. “SRS can now serve more pros and win greater share of wallet in this highly fragmented market. As a reminder, pro represents a $700 billion market opportunity.”
HVAC distribution represents an addressable market of approximately $100 billion and increases our total addressable market to $1.2 trillion, Decker added.
The company said it continues to expect fiscal 2026 sales to grow between 2.5% and 4.5%. Adjusted earnings per share are expected to grow as much as 4%.
At the end of the first quarter, the company operated a total of 2,361 retail stores and over 1,280 SRS locations across all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, 10 Canadian provinces and Mexico.
