Home Depot issues $15 billion stock buyback

Home Depot’s board of directors has authorized a $15 billion share repurchase program, replacing its previous authorization.

Since 2002 and through the third quarter of fiscal 2017, the Atlanta-based home improvement giant has returned approximately $73 billion of cash to shareholders through repurchases, repurchasing approximately 1.3 billion shares, Home Depot said in a statement issued Wednesday.

Home Depot also reaffirmed its forecast for the remainder of fiscal 2017, saying it expects sales to increase approximately 6.3% for the year, with an increase of comparable store sales of approximately 6.5%. For its most recent third quarter, Home Depot posted sales of $25 billion, up 8.1% from the same quarter last year.

The retailer has also disclosed a long-range, fiscal 2020 target, including total sales ranging from approximately $114.7 billion to approximately $119.8 billion and a compounded annual sales growth rate from the end of fiscal 2017 ranging from approximately 4.5% to approximately 6%. Other goals include an operating margin ranging from approximately 14.4% to 15%, annual capital spending of approximately 2.5% of sales, and a return on invested capital ranging from approximately 36.4% o 39.6%.

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.

For the first nine months of 2017, Home Depot’s year-to-date sales were $77 billion — up 6.4% from sales of $72.4 billion in the first nine months of 2016.