Home Depot CEO Frank Blake On CNBC Talking About Recovery

Home Depot HD Chariman and CEO Frank Blake was on CNBC this morning, March 12th, 2014, and had some interesting comments regarding recent earnings, Mother Nature, and the economy in general.

As many companies have recently done, Home Depot is the latest to blame Mother Nature, but overall Blake said it was not as severe and was about $100 million. This figure is a lot but it is not as much as other companies have suffered, this past quarter Crocs CROX, the maker of colorful sandal like slippers, said its profits were cut down by approximately 40 percent.

Blake also talked about Home Depot's online orders and demand:

• More than 1/3 of online orders are picked up or fulfilled out of a store location

• Mobile phones/tablets shopping is quickly approaching 35 percent of online traffic this year.

• Expects sales growth of 4.8 percent for 2014, and is expecting diluted earnings per share of $4.38 for 2014.

Home Depot believes that sales tax should be included on online purchases.

Blake went on to talk about the economy and said that 2013 was the best year they have had since 1999, due to the housing recovery. He also said the overall economy is continuing “modest improvement,” but will probably continue at a slower pace. Maybe this was a hint at lowered guidance. Blake also commented on this, “2014 guidance is based on housing continuing as a tailwind.”

Finally, according to Blake, Home Depot wants to be the most convenient retailer.

Shares of the retail giant are down about one percent today, and are up about five percent this month.