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| Home Depot lowers targets  Home Depot, the world's largest home improvement retailer, announced the launch of a tender offer for 250 million shares of its common stock at a price range of $39.00 to $44.00 per share. The tender offer is scheduled to expire on August 16, 2007. Home Depot also updated its 2007 financial targets to reflect HD Supply as a discontinued operation. In May, the company said that it expected earnings per share to be down 9% for the year. This guidance included an estimated eighteen cents of earnings per share contribution from HD Supply for the last six months of fiscal 2007. Had the company excluded the HD Supply earnings contribution at that time, its earnings per share guidance would have been a decline of 15% for fiscal 2007.Home Depot said that it now expects its earnings per share to decline by 15-18% for fiscal 2007, with total retail sales down 1-2% and comparable store sales down mid-single digit. The company also stated that it would open approximately 108 new stores in fiscal 2007. Finally, Home Depot expects its operating margin to contract by 120-150 basis points due to negative same store sales and its continued investment in its core retail operations. write your comments about the article :: © 2007 Construction News :: home page |