Home Depot posts loss after charges

[Joanne98]

Source: Reuters


ATLANTA (Reuters) - Top home improvement retailer Home Depot (HD.N) posted a fourth quarter net loss on Tuesday after charges tied to store closures, and said operating profit per share would fall in 2009.

Home Depot, which is cutting 7,000 jobs as it shutters its Expo Design Center chain and trims corporate costs, also said it would open fewer new stores this year.

The quarterly loss came to $54 million, or 3 cents a share, for the quarter ended February 1, compared with earnings of $671 million, or 40 cents a share, a year earlier.

The latest period included a pretax charge of $387 million tied to the Expo closure and a $163 million writedown of an investment. Excluding those items, profit from continuing operations was 19 cents a share, better than analysts average estimate of 15 cents a share, according to Reuters Estimates.

Sales fell 17 percent to $14.6 billion.



Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/ousiv/idUSTRE51N1ZD20090224

[tclambert]

1. I'm a little surprised.

New construction is down, sure, but I thought Home Depot made more money on home repair, and I expected that to go up the way car repairs have. Apparently not.

[Igel]

2. They made money.

But they had debt and losses that they had to pay down from previous actions, an investment that apparently soured and losses associated with some closed stores. When they declare them on their books is a function not of when they've actually lost the money, but when there's a profit they can negate in order to save on taxes and when it's politically and socially acceptable.

When everybody else is losing money, HD can "lose" money without outrage from its board, esp. when they make their profits non-taxable.

"Loss after charges" usually means "we made money but have debt to write off."

[snooper2]

3. Good....

Spend your money at Lowes...

[On the Road]

4. That's Actually Better Than I Would Have Thought

given the huge downturn in real estate. A lot of renovation projects are being stopped in progress because the money ran out. $.03 a share is survivable.