Home Depot's CEO Frank Blake said favorable weather helped his company finish 2011 strong, notching net earnings of $774 million during the fourth quarter, which is an increase of 31.8 percent over 2010's $587 million in fourth-quarter earnings.
The company posted sales of $16.0 billion for the fourth quarter of 2011, a 5.9 percent increase from the fourth quarter of 2010's sales of $15.1 billion, while same-store sales for the fourth quarter of 2011 increased 5.7 percent.
For all of 2011, Home Depot posted net profits of $3.9 billion, a 16.3 percent increase of 2010 profits of $3.3 billion. Sales for 2011 were $70.4 billion, an increase of 3.5 percent from $68 billion in 2010. Same-store sales for 2011 increased 3.4 percent.
For 2012, Home Depot forecasted:
- Sales growth of approximately 4 percent
- Low single-digit comparable store sales growth
- 11 new stores.
