Home Depot’s earnings swell in Q4

New York -- Atlanta-based The Home Depot reported a strong fourth quarter performance, with sales up 8.3% to $19.2 billion, and fourth quarter net earnings up 36.1% to $1.38 billion.

Comp-store sales for the quarter were positive 7.9%, and positive 8.9% for U.S. stores. Home Depot CEO Craig Menear pointed to a number of factors responsible for the growth.

“We had a strong finish to the year, as strength across the store, the recovering U.S. housing market and solid execution aided our business in 2014,” he said.

For the full year, net sales increased 5.5% to $83.176 billion. Net income for the fiscal year ended Feb. 1 increased 17.8% to $6.345 billion. Comp-store sales for the full year increased 5.3%, and increased 6.1% for U.S. stores.

Looking ahead to fiscal 2015, the company forecasts a slower pace to sales growth — about 3.5% to 4.7%.

The company’s much-publicized data breach continues to linger as a financial sore spot for the company. Home Depot cautioned that it is not able to estimate possible costs related to the breach. These might include reimbursement costs, card resistance, civil litigation and other legal action, the company said.

The retailer also expects to open six new stores in 2015. As of Feb. 1, the company operated 2,269 stores.