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Home Depot Posts Lower Profit as Homeowners Hold Off on Large Projects

Staff Report From Georgia CEO

Wednesday, May 20th, 2026

The Home Depot®, the world's largest home improvement retailer, today reported sales of $41.8 billion for the first quarter of fiscal 2026, an increase of $1.9 billion, or 4.8% from the first quarter of fiscal 2025. Comparable sales for the first quarter of fiscal 2026 increased 0.6%, and comparable sales in the U.S. increased 0.4%. For the first quarter of fiscal 2026, foreign exchange rates positively impacted total company comparable sales by approximately 55 basis points.

Net earnings for the first quarter of fiscal 2026 were $3.3 billion, or $3.30 per diluted share, compared with net earnings of $3.4 billion, or $3.45 per diluted share, in the same period of fiscal 2025.

Adjusted(1) diluted earnings per share for the first quarter of fiscal 2026 were $3.43, compared with adjusted diluted earnings per share of $3.56 in the same period of fiscal 2025.

"Our first quarter results were in line with our expectations. The underlying demand in our business was relatively similar to what we saw throughout fiscal 2025, despite greater consumer uncertainty and housing affordability pressure," said Ted Decker, chair, president and CEO. "As always, our associates provided excellent customer service during the quarter, and I would like to thank them for their continued hard work and dedication to serving our customers."

Fiscal 2026 Guidance

The company reaffirms its fiscal 2026 guidance:  

  • Total sales growth of approximately 2.5% to 4.5%
  • Comparable sales growth of approximately flat to 2.0%
  • Approximately 15 new stores
  • Gross margin of approximately 33.1%
  • Operating margin of approximately 12.4% to 12.6%
  • Adjusted(1) operating margin of approximately 12.8% to 13.0%
  • Effective tax rate of approximately 24.3%
  • Net interest expense of approximately $2.3 billion
  • Diluted earnings-per-share to grow approximately flat to 4.0% from $14.23 in fiscal 2025
  • Adjusted(1) diluted earnings-per-share to grow approximately flat to 4.0% from $14.69 in fiscal 2025
  • Capital expenditures of approximately 2.5% of total sales
 
1) The Company reports its financial results in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP). As used in this earnings release, adjusted operating income, adjusted operating margin, and adjusted diluted earnings per share are non-GAAP financial measures. Refer to the end of this release for an explanation of these non-GAAP financial measures and reconciliations to the most directly comparable GAAP measures.

The Home Depot will conduct a conference call today at 9 a.m. ET to discuss information included in this news release and related matters. The conference call will be available in its entirety through a webcast and replay at ir.homedepot.com/events-and-presentations.

At the end of the first quarter, the company operated a total of 2,361 retail stores and over 1,280 SRS locations across all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, 10 Canadian provinces and Mexico. The Company employs over 470,000 associates. The Home Depot's stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: HD) and is included in the Dow Jones industrial average and Standard & Poor's 500 index.