Latest news with #TedDecker
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Home Depot elevates CIO from within as AI adoption plans progress
This story was originally published on CIO Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily CIO Dive newsletter. The Home Depot tapped Angie Brown to lead technology strategy, infrastructure, cybersecurity and software development Thursday. Brown was appointed as EVP and CIO after 27 years with the home improvement retailer, the company said. Brown previously worked across virtually every aspect of the company's IT operations, most recently managing technology for merchandising, customer experience, marketing, reliability engineering and supply chain functions as SVP of IT. 'Her strategic vision and deep expertise have been instrumental in transforming Home Depot's interconnected experience, making home improvement more modern, more seamless and more convenient," Chair, President and CEO Ted Decker said in the announcement. The appointment marks the departure of Fahim Siddiqui, who was elevated from SVP of IT to EVP and CIO shortly after Decker began his tenure as CEO in 2022. 'Fahim has been instrumental in improving our infrastructure across our stores, supply chain facilities and support centers,' Decker said. "His leadership has been impactful in modernizing our technology foundation.' Brown's ascent coincides with a wave of tech-driven transformation across the retail industry, as top businesses deploy generative AI capabilities to enhance customer facing applications and assist employees. Home Depot was quick to see the technology's potential. The company leveraged machine learning and computer vision to build an in-store app called Sidekick that helps associates prioritize tasks, manage inventory and improve productivity after Siddiqui assumed the CIO role and his predecessor Matt Carey became EVP of customer experience. Carey retired last year and was succeeded by Jordan Broggi as EVP of customer experience and president of online. Cloud helped build a foundation for Home Depot's AI adoption. The company migrated its website to Google Cloud and then expanded the hyperscaler partnership last year to leverage Vertex AI model training and analytics capabilities. By mid-2024, Home Depot was piloting more than 175 machine learning and generative AI use cases, Siddiqui said during last year's MIT Sloan CIO Symposium. The company rolled out information-gathering generative AI tools for its staff earlier this year, company executives said during a recent earnings call. While Home Depot was quick to explore the potential of generative AI tools, the company was also wary of the inherent risks. Drawing on the company's experience in the cloud, Siddiqui advocated for a strong security posture around AI adoption, pointing to attack vectors opened by the technology in the absence of strong governance. The company suffered a major data breach in 2014 that led to a multimillion-dollar customer settlement and was the victim of a third-party vendor error that exposed employee data last year. Home Depot declined to provide details on the reason for Siddiqui's departure or his future plans in an email. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
26-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
3 Must-Know Facts About Home Depot Before You Buy the Stock
Home Depot generates a sizable chunk of its sales from professional customers, which helps boost the company's financial metrics. Macro headwinds have been impacting the business, but there are long-term industry tailwinds to keep in mind. The stock has outperformed the S&P 500 in the past decade, but the valuation looks expensive today. 10 stocks we like better than Home Depot › With $163 billion in trailing-12-month sales, Home Depot (NYSE: HD) is not only the clear leader in the home improvement industry, but it's undoubtedly one of the biggest retailers in the world. Shares have performed well in the past decade, producing a total return of 319%. But as of this writing, they trade 15% below their peak price. This might prompt you to take a closer look at the company. Here are three facts you should know about Home Depot before buying this top retail stock. Home Depot sells building materials, outdoor equipment, and paint, among many other items, to do-it-yourself (DIY) customers. But the business also targets professionals, including contractors, plumbers, and electricians. It's this latter group that represents about half of the company's total revenue base. That share is substantially higher than what rival Lowe's sees, which is about a 25% share from pros. This has some implications for Home Depot's business. First, pros generally spend much more money and visit stores more frequently than DIY customers. This makes sense, given that DIYers are probably only tackling one project, while a pro could be working on multiple job sites. For Home Depot, this results in better financial metrics. Home Depot's return on invested capital and operating margin have both generally been better than Lowe's. There are other factors involved, but Home Depot's stronger foothold with professionals deserves some credit here. In the latest fiscal quarter (Q1 2025, ended May 4), executive vice president of merchandising Billy Bastek said on the earnings call, "Pro comp sales were positive and outpaced the DIY customer." In fiscal 2020 and 2021, Home Depot's sales surged 19.9% and 14.4%, respectively. These above-average rates of growth were boosted by heightened demand from households to take on home upgrades during the depths of the pandemic. Since then, there's been a normalization of these trends. Home Depot reported same-store sales declines of 3.2% in fiscal 2023, 1.8% in fiscal 2024, and 0.3% in Q1 2025. Clearly, tighter macro conditions have presented a major headwind. Consumers don't like uncertainty, but investors should have a positive outlook over the long term since Home Depot has favorable tailwinds. First is the aging housing stock. CEO Ted Decker pointed out on the latest earnings call that 55% of homes in the U.S. are at least 40 years old. Older houses require more upkeep. In the past five years, the median sale price of a home in the U.S. has gone up by about 50%. Consequently, trillions of dollars of untapped equity can be accessed to spend on home renovations, as improved economic conditions give consumers more confidence. Home Depot's growth has hit the brakes due to the macro environment. However, the valuation tells us a different story, one that shows a company doing well. As of this writing, the stock trades at a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.9, above the trailing five- and 10-year averages. It's clear that shares are expensive on a historical basis. The positive spin is that Home Depot is the industry leader, and that once economic conditions improve, it should get back to registering steady revenue and earnings growth. On the other hand, I think the stock is overvalued based on the latest financial trends. Before you buy stock in Home Depot, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and Home Depot wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $639,271!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $804,688!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 957% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 167% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join . See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of May 19, 2025 Neil Patel has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Home Depot. The Motley Fool recommends Lowe's Companies. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. 3 Must-Know Facts About Home Depot Before You Buy the Stock was originally published by The Motley Fool Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Worried About Tariffs? Home Depot Says It Won't Raise Prices.
Home Depot reported a mixed first quarter, with EPS that came in below expectations. Management said that it would not raise prices because of tariffs. Home Depot's profit margins are higher than many competitors. 10 stocks we like better than Home Depot › Will they or won't they? That's the question on investors' and shoppers' minds alike as retailers start outlining their strategies to deal with tariffs. Walmart said last week that it would need to raise some prices, but it provided a broad outline of how it would seek to minimize the price hikes through redistributing its import bases, reworking packaging, and other actions. Home Depot (NYSE: HD), on the other hand, told investors during its first-quarter earnings report that it wouldn't raise prices. That was welcome news, considering all the other problems the company is having today. Let's take a deeper look at what's going on. Home Depot is a perennial winner and market beater, but it's experiencing strong external pressure from a variety of interconnected sources. The real estate industry is struggling through continued high interest and mortgage rates, leading to lower sales in the home improvement sector, and inflation is making it harder for customers to spend on anything extra. Home improvement is often a gray zone between essentials and discretionary spending. As the leader in the industry, Home Depot benefits from spending on what consumers can't avoid, but it feels the pinch in other categories. "People are painting again and working in their yards and doing smaller projects, but just have not engaged in the larger projects," CEO Ted Decker said during the first-quarter earnings call. The 2025 fiscal first quarter (ended May 4) was mixed, but in line with expectations. Sales increased 9.4% year over year, but comparable sales (comps) were down 0.3%. That means the growth is coming from new stores, of which there were three in the first quarter, and acquisitions, like SRS Distribution, which Home Depot purchased last year. Adjusted earnings per share (EPS) were $3.56, down from $3.67 last year and $0.04 below analyst expectations. Decker said that 50% of the company's merchandise is sourced in the U.S., and over the past few years, it's diversified its supply base so it's not reliant on any one country. He said that within the next 12 months, it will reach a level that no country outside the U.S. will be responsible for more than 10% of its purchases. Decker explained that the company has many levers to pull to offer a strong value proposition for customers even now, and that it's weathered many economic events in the past. He noted that for most homeowners, their house is their most expensive asset, and aging homes need work. Indeed, 55% of homes are at least 40 years old, and Home Depot is well-positioned to benefit from consumer spending. It's doing whatever it can to be the company to beat: upgrading its digital platforms, renovating its stores, investing in technology, and focusing on the consumer experience. To that end, Home Depot doesn't see the likelihood that it will need to increase many prices. It has an elastic model that can call up different supply lines, and it anticipates being able to cut out whatever products would require higher pricing. The company sees this as an exciting opportunity to capture market share from other retailers that don't have its scale and leverage. Although there's pressure, Home Depot still has high margins compared with other retailers. Walmart, for example, said it can't absorb tariffs because its profit margins are already low; about 2.4% today. Home Depot, on the other hand, enjoys a high profit margin compared to large retailers like Walmart, Costco Wholesale, and Target. Groceries have low margins, so this makes sense, but its profit margin is also higher than more similar companies like Lowe's and Floor & Decor. If Home Depot doesn't have to raise prices, it can grow its market share while keeping its margins healthy. Investors shouldn't get scared off because of short-term pressure. Home Depot's management is always finding ways to generate growth opportunities and become more efficient, and its approach to tariffs should boost investor confidence. The company purchased SRS last year to expand its market opportunity, which it sees as $1 trillion. And don't forget Home Depot's dividend. It yields 2.4% at the current price, and it's reliable and growing. All this means Home Depot is an excellent, all-weather choice for long-term value investors. Before you buy stock in Home Depot, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and Home Depot wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $644,254!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $807,814!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 962% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 169% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join . See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of May 19, 2025 Jennifer Saibil has positions in Walmart. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Costco Wholesale, Home Depot, Target, and Walmart. The Motley Fool recommends Lowe's Companies. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Worried About Tariffs? Home Depot Says It Won't Raise Prices. was originally published by The Motley Fool Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Miami Herald
20-05-2025
- Business
- Miami Herald
Don't expect storewide price increases despite tariffs, Home Depot says
Home Depot on Tuesday reported sales growth in its fiscal first quarter as consumers continued to show resiliency in the face of the trade war, but growth for existing stores in the U.S. was soft, a sign consumers continue to be guarded in making big purchases. As other retailers have pared back or put on pause their earnings expectations, the Georgia-based retail giant kept its guidance in place, saying Tuesday it still expects sales across its footprint to grow 2.8% for the fiscal year. Executives also said they did not expect widespread price increases on products as the company has worked to diversify where it buys inventory and find cost savings elsewhere. The people who tend to shop at Home Depot - largely homeowners and the contractors who serve them - have faced the uncertainties of the trade war, undulations in the stock market and high interest rates that have made borrowing for big projects and homebuying more difficult. The trade war has challenged businesses in figuring out purchasing, managing inventory and how to plan, and economists have warned the import taxes are likely to lead to inflation. Home Depot, given its place in the retail world, is a bellwether for the broader economy, and its performance offers clues to how homeowners and contractors are faring. The worst appears to be in the rearview mirror, Home Depot Chairman, President and CEO Ted Decker said in a conference call with investors and analysts. President Donald Trump has pulled back from his maximalist positions on tariffs - though U.S. tariff rates remain high - and the stock market has bounced back from a dreadful April as consumer and business sentiment plummeted. The average Home Depot customer has an income of $110,000 and 80% are homeowners, Decker said. "Our customer is in a good spot right now," he said. Home construction remains constrained, and homeowners have huge amounts of home equity that they could borrow against. Still, consumers are cautious. Faced with persistently high interest rates, homeowners have remained skittish to start big projects. But the nation's housing inventory is aging, increasing the need for maintenance and upgrades. Decker said that means consumers could come off the sidelines as the retailer heads deeper into spring and into the summer, which executives call the "Super Bowl" season for the world's largest home improvement retailer. "We remain bullish on the fundamentals of home improvement, and we are confident we are best positioned to win," Decker said. 'Because of our scale' Home Depot said its sales grew 9.4% to $39.9 billion in the quarter that ended May 4. A big part of that growth came from its purchase last year of SRS Distribution, a business that serves residential contractors. The company also opened three stores in the quarter. Net income in the quarter was $3.4 billion, down about 5% from the same period last year. When counting stores open at least a year, sales across Home Depot's network dipped 0.3% in that time, while sales at U.S. existing stores grew a modest 0.2%, the company said. Foreign currency rates played a role in the dip in international same store sales. Home Depot said the quarter met its internal expectations, though Bloomberg reported its earnings missed Wall Street expectations. Poor weather in the northern U.S. and Canada also played a role in sales softness, but sales appear to be rebounding in the early weeks of the company's second fiscal quarter, executives said on the conference call. While measures of inflation have remained low as Trump slapped tariffs on countries worldwide, retailers have warned price increases could soon begin to appear in stores and online. Walmart executives last week said that despite efforts to keep prices low and absorb costs, Trump's import taxes would force it to raise prices. That triggered a harsh response from Trump on social media, who said the company should "EAT THE TARIFFS." Home Depot executives on Tuesday's call highlighted the company's efforts over the years to diversify its supplier base. More than half the products in its stores are sourced from the U.S., and executives said that within the next 12 months, no country outside the U.S. will be the origin of more than 10% of its goods. "Because of our scale, the great partnerships we have with our suppliers and productivity that we continue to see in our business, we intend to generally maintain our current pricing levels across our portfolio," Home Depot Chief Financial Officer Richard McPhail said. Copyright (C) 2025, Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Portions copyrighted by the respective providers.
The Independent
20-05-2025
- Business
- The Independent
Home Depot claims it won't raise its prices in response to Trump's tariffs
Home Depot has announced that it will not raise prices in response to President Donald Trump 's widespread tariffs. Meanwhile, Walmart announced last week that it would raise its prices because of the tariffs, prompting Trump to lash out. Executive Vice President of Merchandising, Billy Bastek, told the paper that Home Depot considers pricing across its portfolio, hoping to hold most prices steady and possibly take market share from those raising their prices. 'It's a great opportunity for us to take share, and it's a great opportunity for our suppliers to take share as well,' he told The Journal. Suppliers say that retailers, including Walmart and Home Depot, have been arguing for concessions on pricing or that suppliers move their production out of China. Some suppliers to Home Depot have done so. 'We anticipate that 12 months from now, no single country outside the United States will represent more than 10 percent of our purchases,' Chief Financial Officer Richard McPhail told the paper. Home Depot's comparable sales in the quarter dipped by 0.3 percent. However, in the U.S., they increased by 0.2 percent. February sales were low because of bad weather. Still, good employment levels and home appreciation have meant that its customer base of mostly homeowners has carried on spending on home improvement, McPhail noted. Chief Executive Ted Decker added that he's waiting for an improvement in consumer confidence. While Home Depot's customers continue to spend on things like painting or yardwork, projects that would need financing appear to have been paused for now. 'While there are literally trillions of dollars of equity available to be tapped in the homes, I think there's still enough macro uncertainty,' Decker told The Journal. As a number of companies have scaled back or suspended their forecasts amid the tariff uncertainty, Walmart and Home Depot have kept their financial forecasts for the fiscal year unchanged.
