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Yahoo
27 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Home Depot Navigates Traffic Decline, Reaffirms Annual Outlook
The Home Depot Inc. (NYSE:HD) reported second-quarter fiscal 2025 sales of $45.277 billion, up 4.9% from $43.175 billion a year earlier, but slightly below Wall Street's estimate of $45.356 billion. Comparable sales rose 1.0%, with U.S. comparable sales increasing 1.4%. Foreign exchange rates weighed on results, reducing companywide comparable sales by 40 basis points. Net earnings were $4.6 billion, or $4.58 per diluted share, compared with $4.6 billion, or $4.60 per share, in the prior year. Adjusted diluted earnings per share were $4.68, just above last year's $4.67 but short of the $4.71 consensus estimate. Also Read: 'Our second quarter results were in line with our expectations. The momentum that began in the back half of last year continued throughout the first half as customers engaged more broadly in smaller home improvement projects,' said Ted Decker, chair, president, and CEO. Operating income totaled $6.555 billion, with an operating margin of 14.5%, compared with $6.534 billion and 15.1% a year earlier. Adjusted operating income reached $6.694 billion, with an adjusted margin of 14.8%, down from $6.624 billion and 15.3% last year. Comparable customer transactions declined 0.4% on a same-store basis, while total customer transactions fell 0.9% to 446.8 million. The average ticket increased 1.4% to $90.01, offsetting some of the decline in traffic. For the first six months of fiscal 2025, net cash provided by operating activities was $8.968 billion, compared with $10.906 billion in the same period last year. Capital expenditures were $1.723 billion, acquisitions totaled $233 million, and dividends paid reached $4.574 billion. View more earnings on HD At the quarter's end, cash and cash equivalents were $2.804 billion, up from $1.613 billion a year earlier. Adjusted debt, which includes long-term borrowings, current maturities, and lease liabilities, declined to $61.321 billion from $64.612 billion in the prior year. Return on invested capital (ROIC) was 27.2% (down from 31.9% a year earlier), while adjusted debt-to-EBITDAR improved to 2.2x from 2.5x, supported by EBITDAR of $27.325 billion versus $26.005 billion last year. At the end of the quarter, Home Depot operated 2,353 retail stores and more than 800 branches, employing over 470,000 associates in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, and territories. Tariffs After the first-quarter release, CFO Richard McPhail had said the company had diversified its merchandise sourcing and would not raise prices despite higher tariffs. He added that, as higher interest rates slowed the housing market, Home Depot attracted more business from professional customers and expanded its reach through the acquisition of SRS Distribution, a distributor of roofing, pool, and landscaping supplies. While tariffs were not explicitly mentioned in the second-quarter earnings release, the company expanded its forward-looking statement compared to the fourth quarter 2024 to include risks tied to 'tariffs, trade policy changes or restrictions, or international trade disputes,' along with multiple references to supply chain diversification. Outlook Home Depot reaffirmed its fiscal 2025 outlook, guiding for approximately 2.8% sales growth and 1.0% comparable sales growth for the 52-week year. The company expects a gross margin of 33.4%, an operating margin of 13.0%, and an adjusted operating margin of 13.4%. Diluted EPS is projected to decline about 3% to $14.46, compared with the $14.62 consensus estimate, while adjusted diluted EPS is forecast at $14.94, down 2% from last year and below the $15.00 estimate. Full-year sales are expected to reach $163.980 billion, short of the $164.303 billion consensus, with capital expenditures at roughly 2.5% of sales. Price Action: HD shares were trading lower by 0.33% to $396.00 premarket at last check Tuesday. Read Next:Image via Shutterstock UNLOCKED: 5 NEW TRADES EVERY WEEK. Click now to get top trade ideas daily, plus unlimited access to cutting-edge tools and strategies to gain an edge in the markets. Get the latest stock analysis from Benzinga? HOME DEPOT (HD): Free Stock Analysis Report This article Home Depot Navigates Traffic Decline, Reaffirms Annual Outlook originally appeared on © 2025 Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. Sign in to access your portfolio
Business Insider
29 minutes ago
- Business Insider
LYS Labs Raises $4M to Build Machine-Ready Intelligence Layer for Solana's Internet Capital Markets
Bucharest, Romania, August 19th, 2025, Chainwire LYS Labs, the trailblazing machine-ready intelligence platform for Solana's internet capital markets, has closed an oversubscribed $2M angel round and an additional $2M seed round, signaling a seismic shift in on-chain finance. LYS Labs is building the critical infrastructure that transforms unstructured blockchain data into actionable insights, enabling AI-driven agents to operate natively on-chain. Backed by crypto's elite, such as Michael Heinrich (0G Labs), Piers Kicks (Delphi), Bruce Pon (Ocean Protocol), John Lilic (ex-Telos Foundation), Forest Bai (Foresight Ventures), and Scott Moore (Gitcoin), and institutional heavyweights like Alchemy Ventures, Frachtis, and Auros Global, LYS Labs is poised to redefine how machines engage with blockchain. From Raw Data to Machine-Ready Finance LYS Labs began building in November 2023, initially working across the EVM ecosystem, before shifting its full focus to Solana in November 2024, recognizing it as the most fertile ground and the biggest challenge for scaling internet capital markets. Today, the company has shipped its developer portal for raw data with sub-14ms latency and is already serving developers. Its structured, context-aware data stack is in testnet with a select group of users and benchmarking at around 30ms for its contextualized insights. LYS has also built several OG-RAGs (On-Chain Retrieval-Augmented Generators, which combine on-chain data with retrieval-augmented generation techniques) to power Solexys, an AI-driven, context-aware copilot that enables quants and sophisticated analysts to receive sophisticated signals, backtest strategies, and query blockchain data in natural language. Solexys is also live in the testnet with over 200 users. The Structural Bottleneck in AI and Finance The financial industry is increasingly shifting to on-chain, but unstructured blockchain data remains a barrier. Teams spend up to 70% of their resources cleaning and reconciling raw data before extracting insights, creating inefficiencies that limit true machine adoption. This process can take hours, days, or even weeks without the proper tooling. In traditional markets, structured data is the foundation of Bloomberg terminals, quant models, and algorithmic execution. On-chain finance, by contrast, has been held back by messy, unstructured ledgers that lack semantic context. Structured, context-aware data changes the game: it transforms raw blockchain transactions into information streams that machines can understand, reason over, and act upon. Machine-ready intelligence refers to data that is structured, contextualized, and optimized for AI and machine learning algorithms to readily analyze and act upon. This enables AI-driven agents to move from simple retrieval to higher-order tasks like anomaly detection, second-order risk modeling, and autonomous execution. For institutions, this shift mirrors the leap from ticker tapes to Bloomberg, the difference between noise and intelligence, and ultimately between lagging behind and winning markets. As machine-driven trading expands via bots, agents, and sophisticated AI models, structured, context-aware data becomes the critical bottleneck: The volume of on-chain data doubles roughly every 12 months, making human-driven analysis infeasible. Over $3 trillion in tokenized assets is projected to come on-chain by 2030, according to industry forecasts. LYS Labs aims to reduce data processing time by up to 50% and unlock 20% more efficiency in on-chain trading. Low-latency, high-context data streams are essential for machine finance, where even microsecond inefficiencies create competitive disadvantage. 'Markets are becoming machine-first before they are human-first,' said Marian Oancea, co-founder and technical lead of LYS Labs. 'For AI agents to execute trades, detect anomalies, or build strategies autonomously, they need context-aware, structured data that can be processed instantly. That's what we're building—a data foundation where intelligence and execution can natively operate on-chain.' LYS Labs' mission aligns with Solana's trajectory toward becoming the backbone of internet capital markets—a system where all financial instruments, from memecoins to RWAs, exist on-chain with transparent, machine-readable liquidity. 'Solana's goal is to synchronize global information at the speed of light. We are here to support that,' said Andra Nicolau, co-founder of LYS Labs. 'As intelligence and institutions come on-chain, the real unlock is not just raw data, but structured, machine-ready intelligence that allows new forms of capital allocation, faster markets, and entirely new financial products to emerge. Solana's performance makes it the only chain capable of handling this at scale—and we're building the intelligence layer that makes it usable.' Roadmap: Multi-Chain Expansion and Agent Infrastructure While Solana is LYS Labs' immediate focus, the roadmap extends beyond a single ecosystem. LYS Labs is developing the infrastructure to capture cross-chain alpha in real time, enabling machines to seamlessly reason across multiple blockchains and surface opportunities invisible to human traders. Equally important, they are investing in the agent layer, where infrastructure is still immature. By building native support for agent execution - data pipelines, orchestration, and context layers - LYS Labs aims to close the gap between intelligence and action in machine finance. Their mission is clear: to make AI x crypto more efficient, more intelligent, and more seamless than ever before. About LYS Labs LYS Labs is building the machine-ready intelligence and execution layer for Solana's internet capital markets. Founded in 2023, the company transforms unstructured blockchain data into institutional-grade intelligence, enabling AI agents, quants, and institutions to operate natively on-chain. LYS Labs is backed by leading angels from 0G Labs, Ocean Protocol, Flashbots, Gitcoin, Ripple, and more, along with institutional investors including Alchemy Ventures, Frachtis, and Auros Global. Led by a seasoned team with a combined 30+ years in AI, 27+ years in crypto, and over 20 years in the risk mitigation and cybersecurity space, LYS Labs is well-positioned to lead this paradigm-shifting approach to capital deployment and management in the crypto space. Users can visit to learn more. Contact Co-Founder Andra Nicolau
Bloomberg
29 minutes ago
- Bloomberg
Turkey Probes Utilities Over Failure to Help Balance Grids
Turkey opened an investigation into dozens of power producers which it alleges failed to adjust their output to balance supply and demand, underlining one of the main challenges as intermittent renewables get a larger share of electricity markets. The country's Energy Market Regulatory Authority wrote to 66 companies in recent weeks to demand explanations about why, according to the watchdog, orders to adjust power output between 2020 and 2024 weren't obeyed, according to people familiar with the matter and a letter seen by Bloomberg.
