Home Depot says it's ahead of financial schedule

The Home Depot reaffirmed its fiscal guidance for 2013, as well as updated its 2014 financial outlook, wherein the company now expects to meet a 2015 profitability goal a year earlier than expected.

The company had originally announced an operating margin goal of 12% in June 2012, as well as a 24% reutn on invested capital goal, for the end of fiscal 2015. According to the statement released Wednesday, Home Depot expects to reach these benchmarks by the end of fiscal 2014. 

"Thanks to the hard work and dedication of our associates, we expect to meet the financial targets we set out in June of 2012 a year earlier than planned," said chairman and CEO Frank Blake. "We have set out a challenging new goal for 2015 and plan to continue to build on our company's foundation of customer service, product authority and value creation."



Other expectations for the following fiscal year include sales growth of about 5%, eight new stores, share repurchases of approximately $5.0 billion and capital spending of $1.5 billion.



The retailer also reported projected sales increases of 5.6% for 2013, with diluted earnings-per-share up approximately 24% to $3.72.

The Home Depot's updated fiscal outlook for 2015 now include an operating margin of 13% and a return on invested capital of 27%.