The Home Depot Updates Strategic Priorities; Confirms Fiscal Year 2012 Sales And Earnings Per Share Guidance And Outlines Long-Term Financial Targets

The Home Depot HD will today outline progress on its key strategic priorities and discuss its long-term financial targets at its 2012 Investor and Analyst Conference. 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 The Company will provide an update on its four areas of strategic focus: customer service; product authority; disciplined capital allocation, productivity and efficiency; and interconnected retail. For customer service, the Company is focused on creating an emotional connection with customers, putting customers first and simplifying the business. For product authority, the Company is focused on its merchandising transformation and portfolio strategy, including innovation, assortment and value. For disciplined capital allocation, productivity and efficiency, the Company is focused on continuous operational improvement, incremental supply chain benefits and shareholder value built through higher returns on invested capital and total value returned to shareholders in the form of dividends and share repurchases. For interconnected retail, the Company is focused on building a competitive platform across all commerce channels. "The Home Depot has a strong foundation of customer service, product authority and value creation. We will continue to build on our strategic priorities as we look to 2015 and beyond," said Frank Blake, chairman & CEO. Fiscal Year 2012 Guidance The Company reaffirmed its sales and diluted earnings-per-share guidance for fiscal 2012. The Company still expects sales to be up approximately 4.6% for the year on a 53 week basis and diluted earnings per share to be up approximately 17% to $2.90 for the year. In addition, the Company updated its fiscal year 2012 share repurchase guidance and now expects share repurchases of approximately $4.0 billion. This is an increase of $500 million from the guidance provided in May 2012, but given the timing of the share repurchases, the increase will not have a material impact to diluted earnings per share for fiscal 2012.