Home Depot Earnings Preview (HD)

Before the open on Tuesday morning, Home Depot (NYSE:HD) is set to report earnings.  If you can find anyone positive they are either named "Pangloss" or they look like Robin Williams and named themselves "The Bottom-Fisher King."

Estimates are $0.61 EPS on revenues of $19.59 Billion.  Next quarter is the throw away quarter, and next quarter earnings are expected to be $0.49 EPS on revenues of $18.44 Billion.

Is there a secret housing recovery?  Is there a secret storm that didn’t hit to cause major regional damage?  You get the idea.

Shares sit only 2% above 52-week lows, and at a $28.46 shares are way at the botttom of the $27.99 to $42.01 trading range of the last year.  The only real hope here is that Wall Street threw out too many babies with the dirty bathwater, or that the delay in cold weather in many areas has allowed many supplies to continue being purchased by a few percent more than would have been guessed.

As you can tell, this DJIA component earnings is just too hard to get excited about.  It’s time to bring back that entrepreneurial atmosphere back that Nardelli ran off.  Oh wait, they all work at Lowe’s now or they work at Ace or True Value franchises.

Jon C. Ogg
November 12, 2007