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Home Depot set for Aug. 18 earnings as housing demand stays selective
Investors will focus on whether comparable sales, including U.S. comps, can hold up as consumers shift spending from discretionary home projects amid elevated mortgage rates.
Home Depot is scheduled to release fiscal second-quarter 2026 results on August 18, with traders watching whether demand improves through the spring and early summer and whether its growing professional customer base can offset softness in discretionary home projects, Yahoo Finance reports.
The preview highlights that Home Depot entered the quarter after a mixed fiscal first quarter. Revenue rose 4.8% year over year to $41.8 billion, helped by acquisitions and currency movements, but comparable sales increased only 0.6%, with U.S. comparable sales up 0.4%. Net earnings fell to $3.3 billion from $3.4 billion a year earlier, and adjusted diluted EPS declined to $3.43 from $3.56.
Management said demand was broadly similar to fiscal 2025 despite greater consumer uncertainty and housing affordability pressure, making comparable sales a key metric for the upcoming report. The company has maintained its fiscal 2026 guidance, calling for total sales growth of about 2.5% to 4.5%, comparable sales growth between flat and 2%, adjusted operating margins of 12.8% to 13.0%, and adjusted EPS growth of roughly flat to 4%.
The article points to an underlying housing-cycle challenge, noting that mortgage rates remain elevated and that expensive homes and limited inventory have discouraged both buyers and sellers. It also cites that existing-home sales fell 1.7% in July to an annualized 4.06 million units, while the median existing-home price rose 2% year over year.