UPDATE: Home Depot Posts Rise In Q1 Earnings, Lifts FY14 Earnings Forecast

Home Depot

reported a rise in its fiscal first-quarter earnings and raised its earnings forecast for the year. Home Depot now expects full-year earnings of $4.42 per share, versus its earlier outlook of $4.38 per share. It also reaffirmed FY14 sales to rise around 4.8% versus FY13. It also announced its plans to buy back an additional $3.75 billion in stock. Home Depot's same-store sales increased 2.6%, while US sales rose 3.3%. Home Depot's quarterly profit rose to $1.38 billion, or $1 per share, versus a year-ago profit of $1.23 billion, or $0.83 per share. Its adjusted earnings came in at $0.96 per share. Its revenue climbed 2.9% to $19.69 billion. However, analysts were expecting earnings of $0.99 per share on revenue of $19.95 billion. Home Depot's gross margin rose to 35% from 34.9%. Its average ticket gained less than 1%, while the number of customer transactions jumped 2.2%. The company's press release offered the following comment from Frank Blake, chairman and CEO: "The first quarter was impacted by a slow start to the spring selling season. But we had solid results in non-weather impacted markets and expect our sales for the year to grow in line with the guidance we previously provided." Home Depot shares fell 2.40% to $75.50 in pre-market trading.