Home Depot reveals outlook for full year results

A strong Black Friday and holiday optimism across the store has Home Depot raising its sights slightly for its full-year performance, the company said yesterday.

Based on its year-to-date performance and expectations for the remainder of the fiscal year, the world's largest home improvement retailer updated its fiscal year 2010 guidance and now expects sales to be up about 2.3% for the year. That's up from a previous estimate of about 2.2%.

Earnings expectations also increased -- from a 25% gain to a 27% gain.

“As we look at November into December, we see strength across the store,” said CFO Carol Tome, during the company's analyst meeting held in Boston. “Ordinarily we wouldn’t lift guidance so early in a quarter, but we feel more than confident of the guidance we are giving today.”

The company updated its guidance for its full year performance in several metrics, including:

Sales growth: approximately 2% to 2.5% Comparable-store sales growth: low single-digit New store openings: 10 Gross margin expansion: moderate Expense leverage: modest Operating margin expansion: approximately 30 to 40 bps Capital expenditures: approximately $1.3 billion

"The Home Depot has a strong foundation of customer service, product authority and value creation," said Chairman and CEO Frank Black, during the company's analyst meeting in Boston. "As we look to 2011 and beyond, we will continue to build on that foundation and deliver superior returns."