Home Depot Reported Strong Sales, Walmart Plunges on Weak Online Sales

Mukesh Buch
20 Feb, 2018
New York City

Avangrid reported quarterly loss after pending sale of gas storage business. Duke Energy reported better-than-expected earnings on lower maintenance costs.Home Depot profit jumped on strong US housing market. Walmart online growth dropped to 23%.

[R]12:20 PM New York City, New York – Avangrid reported quarterly loss after pending sale of gas storage business. Duke Energy reported better-than-expected earnings on lower maintenance costs.Home Depot profit jumped on strong US housing market. Walmart online growth dropped to 23%.[/R]

Tollbooth Index edged up 8.56 to 14,444.78.

Earnings Review

Avangrid Inc ((AGR)) dropped 2.2% or $1.11 to $49.24 after the energy and utility provider reported revenues in the fourth-quarter ending in December rose 2.7% from a year ago to $1.5 billion.

Net in the quarter swung to a loss of $77 million or 25 cents per diluted share from profit of $209 million or 67 cents in the same quarter last year.

Avangrid estimated fiscal 2018 diluted earnings per share in the range of $2.16 to $2.46 and sale of gas storage trading business to close in the first-quarter and gas storage facilities to close in the second-quarter of this year.

Albertsons Companies Inc, the privately held grocery chain operator plans to buy the part of drug store operator Rite Aid Corporation and the company is estimated $83 billion and operating profit of about $3.7 billion after the purchase.

Domino''s Pizza, Inc ((DPZ)) slumped 2.8% or $6.13 to $214.61 after the pizza restaurant chain said total revenues in the fourth-quarter ending in December soared 15.7% from a year ago to $891.5 million.

Domestic same store sales in the quarter advanced 4.2% and international same store sales increased 2.5%. Domestic company-owned same store sales jumped 3.8% and domestic franchise stores increased 4.2%.

Net income in the quarter jumped 10.5% to $93.3 million or $2.09 per diluted share from $72.7 million or $1.48 in the same quarter last year.

Duke Energy Corp ((DUK)) decreased 2% or $1.55 to $75.17 after the electricity provider reported revenues in the fourth-quarter ending in December rose 3% from a year ago to $5.1 billion.

Net in the quarter swung to profit $703 million or $1 per diluted share from a loss of $227 million or 33 cents in the same quarter last year.

Duke said its electric utilities and infrastructure business surged 71% to $826 million.

The Home Depot, Inc ((HD)) increased 1.7% or $3.16 to $190.13 after the home improvement retailer said sales in the fourth-quarter ending in December advanced 7.5% from a year ago to $23.9 billion.

Comparable store sales in the quarter surged 7.5% and comparable sales in U.S. stores soared 7.2%.

Net income in the quarter jumped 5.9% to $1.8 billion or $1.52 per diluted share from $1.7 billion or $1.44 in the same quarter last year.

Home Depot forecasted fiscal 2018 sales growth of about 6.5% and comparable store sales growth of about 5%. Gross margin estimated of about 34% and operating margin of about 14.5%.

The home improvement retailer estimated in fiscal 2020 total sales in the range of $115 billion to $120 billion.

Walmart Inc., formerly Wal-Mart Stores, Inc plunged 9.4% or $9.77 to $95 after the supermarkets and convenience stores operator said total revenues in the fourth-quarter ending in December jumped 4.1% from a year ago to $136.3 billion.

U.S. comparable sales increased 2.6% and comparable traffic rose 1.6% and Sam''s Club comparable sales, excluding fuel increased 2.4%.

Net income in the quarter tumbled 42.1% to $2.2 billion or 73 cents per diluted share from $3.8 billion or $1.22 in the same quarter last year.

Net sales at Walmart International soared 6.7% to $33.1 billion but operating income declined 28% to $4.5 billion.

During the holiday period, online sales increase declined to 23% from 50% surge in prior quarter.