Housing recovery helps Home Depot beat Street in Q2

Atlanta – A continuing recovery in the U.S. housing market helped The Home Depot Inc. exceed Wall Street projections for net income and sales during the second quarter of fiscal 2015. Net income rose 9% to $2.23 billion, from $2.05 billion the prior-year period.



Expenses did not rise at the same pace as sales, leading to the higher net income. Profit growth was hindered by a pretax net expense of $92 million related to Home Depot’s 2014 data breach, including an accrual for estimated probable losses that the company expects to incur in connection with the claims made by the payment card networks.



Sales grew 4% to $24.83 billion, from $23.81 billion. Same-store sales increased 4.2%, including a 5.7% uptick in U.S. stores.



"We were pleased with this quarter's results,” said Craig Menear, chairman, CEO and president. “We saw balanced growth across our business resulting from strength in the core of the store as well as the continued recovery of the U.S. housing market."



Based on strong performance so far, as well as on the planned completion of its Home Depot revised its fiscal 2015 guidance upwards. The company now anticipates diluted earnings per share to grow in a range of approximately 13%-14%, along with net sales growth of 5.2%-6% and same-store sales growth of 4.1%-4.9%.