ATLANTA, Dec. 6, 2017 /CNW/ -- The Home
Depot®, the world's largest home improvement retailer,
will outline today, at its 2017 Investor and Analyst Conference,
key strategic priorities and discuss long-term financial
targets.
Today's conference will begin at 9 a.m.
ET and will be available in its entirety through a live
webcast and replay at ir.homedepot.com in the Events &
Presentations section.
Strategic Priorities
During today's conference, the Company will provide an update on
the five strategic priorities it established in 2015. The Company
will also discuss its intent to accelerate business investment over
the next three years to enhance the customer experience, position
itself for the future and create value for shareholders. The main
areas of discussion will be:
- Enhancing the Customer Experience: The Company will highlight
the various ways it is leveraging its physical and digital assets
to keep pace with changing customer expectations, while continuing
to balance the art and science of retail to consistently deliver
innovative products at the best value for its customers.
- Positioning for the Future: The Company will describe the key
investments it will make to position itself as "One Home Depot."
Key areas of investment include stores, associates, the
interconnected customer experience, and the Company's supply chain
and delivery capabilities.
- Creating Value: The Company will address its approach to
creating shareholder value by delivering higher returns on invested
capital and increasing total value returned to shareholders in the
form of dividends and share repurchases.
"The retail landscape is changing at unprecedented rates and we
plan to invest for the future to address the evolving needs of our
customers. We will accelerate our investments, while continuing to
focus on delivering the value our shareholders expect from The Home
Depot," said Craig Menear, chairman,
CEO and president.
Fiscal Year 2017 Guidance
The Company reaffirmed its sales and diluted earnings-per-share
guidance for fiscal 2017. The Company expects sales to increase
approximately 6.3 percent for the year, with comparable store sales
of approximately 6.5 percent. The Company also expects fiscal 2017
diluted earnings per share to grow approximately 14 percent to
$7.36. The Company's diluted
earnings-per-share guidance includes the benefit of its intent to
repurchase an additional $2.1 billion
of shares in the fourth quarter, bringing total fiscal 2017 share
repurchases to $8 billion.
Long-Term Financial Targets
Today the Company will set out new long-term, fiscal 2020
financial targets as follows:
- Total sales ranging from approximately $114.7 billion to approximately $119.8 billion
- A compounded annual sales growth rate from the end of fiscal
2017 ranging from approximately 4.5 percent to approximately 6.0
percent
- Operating margin ranging from approximately 14.4 percent to
15.0 percent
- Annual capital spending of approximately 2.5 percent of
sales
- Return on invested capital ranging from approximately 36.4
percent to 39.6 percent
Share Repurchase Authorization
The Company's Board of Directors announced a $15 billion share repurchase program, replacing
its previous authorization. Since 2002 and through the third
quarter of fiscal 2017, the Company has returned approximately
$73 billion of cash to shareholders
through repurchases, repurchasing approximately 1.3 billion
shares.
At the end of the third quarter, the Company operated a total of
2,283 retail stores in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, U.S.
Virgin Islands, Guam, 10
Canadian provinces and Mexico. The
Company employs more than 400,000 associates. The Home Depot's
stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: HD) and is
included in the Dow Jones industrial average and Standard &
Poor's 500 index.
Certain statements contained herein constitute
"forward-looking statements" as defined in the Private Securities
Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements may
relate to, among other things, the demand for our products and
services; net sales growth; comparable store sales; effects of
competition; state of the economy; state of the residential
construction, housing and home improvement markets; state of the
credit markets, including mortgages, home equity loans and consumer
credit; demand for credit offerings; inventory and in-stock
positions; implementation of store, interconnected retail, supply
chain and technology initiatives; management of relationships with
our suppliers and vendors; the impact and expected outcome of
investigations, inquiries, claims and litigation, including those
related to the 2014 data breach; issues related to the payment
methods we accept; continuation of share repurchase programs; net
earnings performance; earnings per share; dividend targets; capital
allocation and expenditures; liquidity; return on invested capital;
expense leverage; stock-based compensation expense; commodity price
inflation and deflation; the ability to issue debt on terms and at
rates acceptable to us; the effect of accounting charges; the
effect of adopting certain accounting standards; store openings and
closures; guidance for fiscal 2017 and beyond; financial outlook;
and the integration of acquired companies into our organization and
the ability to recognize the anticipated synergies and benefits of
those acquisitions. Forward-looking statements are based on
currently available information and our current assumptions,
expectations and projections about future events. You should not
rely on our forward-looking statements. These statements are not
guarantees of future performance and are subject to future events,
risks and uncertainties – many of which are beyond our control or
are currently unknown to us – as well as potentially inaccurate
assumptions that could cause actual results to differ materially
from our expectations and projections. These risks and
uncertainties include but are not limited to those described in
Item 1A, "Risk Factors," and elsewhere in our Annual Report on Form
10-K for our fiscal year ended January 29,
2017 and in our subsequent Quarterly Reports on Form
10-Q.
Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are
made, and we do not undertake to update these statements other than
as required by law. You are advised, however, to review any further
disclosures we make on related subjects in our periodic filings
with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
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SOURCE The Home Depot