Home Depot reaffirms guidance amid 'frozen housing market conditions'

Home Depot on Tuesday reported fiscal second-quarter results that beat Wall Street expectations on the top and bottom lines and reaffirmed its full fiscal-year guidance.

"We continue to operate in what I call 'frozen housing market' conditions, but we also know that we're taking share and that we're serving our customers better every day," CFO Richard McPhail told CNBC. "It's a reflection of the continued investment we've made and the focus on executing our strategy."

McPhail said Home Depot saw "broad engagement" across its categories, including in both its pro and do-it-yourself businesses, but the greater uncertainty in the market led the company to reaffirm rather than raise its guidance.

He added that Home Depot's customer is "a healthy cohort," though he said the company has still not seen consumers return to big projects.

"They've told us they have the means to spend, they're just hesitant," he told CNBC. "While we're happy with their level of engagement in the first half, they do tell us they're worried about inflation, about fuel costs and about, about general uncertainty, and so there is a little bit of hesitancy there as the project gets bigger."

Here's how Home Depot performed in its fiscal second quarter compared with what Wall Street was expecting, based on a survey of analysts by LSEG:

The home improvement retailer reported net income of $4.77 billion, or $4.79 per share, compared with $4.55 billion, or $4.58 per share, the year prior. Excluding one-time items, Home Depot reported adjusted earnings per share of $4.92. Revenue rose 5.7% to $47.86 billion.

Home Depot saw comparable sales rise 1.7%, beating expectations that they would be up 0.9%, according to StreetAccount. McPhail said it is the highest comparable sales number the company has posted since the fiscal third quarter of 2022.