Home Depot Net Income Falls First Time in Three Years

the only surprise is how ugly the stock performed during the greatest bullmarkjet in housing and over 13 billionn $ in buybacks!

die richtige überraschung ist wie grausam diese aktie inmitten des größten bullenmarktes und 13 mrd $ buyback performed hat.

Home Depot Net Income Falls First Time in Three Years http://tinyurl.com/ygpk5d

Nov. 14 (Bloomberg) -- Home Depot Inc., the world's largest home improvement retailer, said third-quarter net income fell 3.1 percent, the first decline since 2003 as the housing market cooled. The company lowered its earnings forecast.

Sales at stores open at least a year fell 5.1 percent. .......

``This begs the question of when we could possibly look for improvement,'' ......That looks more to be in the second half next year. We're a ways away from that.''

Shares of Home Depot fell 24 cents to $36.40 yesterday in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. They have declined 14 percent this year. Shares of Lowe's, which has about 1,280 stores and reports earnings Nov. 20, declined 17 cents to $29. They have dropped 13 percent over the same period.

this is from their release: (imagine the chart without the buybacks................ )

In the third quarter, the Company repurchased 24 million shares. Since its share repurchase program began in 2002, the Company has repurchased 372 million, or approximately 16 percent, of its outstanding shares and spent $13.3 billion under its $17.5 billion authorization

Second-quarter same-store sales fell 0.2 percent, the worst performance in three years. Sales in those stores rose 0.2 percent in the first quarter. Home Depot said sales in older stores would be ``flat to slightly negative'' in the second half of the year.

Supplying Builders
Nardelli has made at least eight acquisitions to build the company's supply division. In March, the retailer bought Hughes Supply for $3.19 billion, which will help double the size of the unit's sales to $12 billion this year. The division will make up about a fifth of overall sales by 2010, Home Depot has said. (what a timing........)

Home Depot, with more than 2,109 stores, about 90 percent of which are in the U.S., is increasing sales to builders and expanding in Mexico, Canada and China to keep pace with Lowe's, which has about 1,280 stores and is still opening stores in large U.S. cities.

.....Of 24 analysts rating the company in the past 12 months, 12 have it at ``buy,'' nine say ``hold,'' and three recommend selling. (look at the charts to see what their opinion is worth........)

update:

Home Depot: inventory at end of Q3 was up 13.9%