Home Depot, Inc. (The)

Greetings, and welcome to the Home Depot's third quarter 2021 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A brief question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Isabel Jancy. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Christine, and good morning, everyone. Welcome to Home Depot's third quarter 2021 earnings call. Joining us on our call today are Craig Menear, Chairman and CEO, Ted Decker, President and Chief Operating Officer, and Richard McVail, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Following our prepared remarks, the call will be open for questions. Questions will be limited to analysts and investors. And as a reminder, please limit yourself to one question with one follow-up. If we are unable to get to your question during the call, please call Investor Relations at 770-384-2387. Before I turn the call over to Craig, let me remind you that today's press release and the presentations made by our executives include forward-looking statements as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from our expectations and projections. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, the factors identified in the release and in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Today's presentations will also include certain non-GAAP measures, Reconciliation of these measures is provided on our website. Now, let me turn the call over to Craig.

Thank you, Isabel, and good morning, everyone. We appreciate you joining us on our call this morning. I'm pleased to report that we had another strong performance in the third quarter. Sales for the third quarter were $36.8 billion, up 9.8% from last year. Comp sales were up 6.1% from last year, with U.S. comps of positive 5.5%. Diluted earnings per share were $3.92 in the third quarter, up from $3.18 in the third quarter last year. Home improvement demand remains strong. Our customers remain engaged with projects around the home, and we continue to focus on delivering the best experience in retail. As we mentioned last quarter, we continue to see customers taking on larger home improvement projects as evidenced by the continued strength with our pro customer, which once again outpaced the DIY customer. As has been the case for the last 18 months, the team is doing an outstanding job of navigating a fluid and challenging operating environment. Ultimately, this is what has allowed us to respond to the strong home improvement demand that has persisted. We had positive comps every week despite unprecedented compares last year and grew sales by $3.3 billion in the third quarter, bringing total sales growth year-to-date to more than $15.5 billion through the third quarter. From a geographic perspective, all of our 19 U.S. regions posted positive comps versus last year, and both Canada and Mexico posted positive comps. These results were driven by our associates who have maintained a relentless focus on our customers while simultaneously managing industry-wide supply chain disruptions, inflation, and a tight labor market. While these factors present challenges for retail as a whole, we will use our experience, tools, and our scale to manage through this environment with the intent to deliver a strong value proposition to our customers. We are thankful for the tenure and strength of our relationships with our supplier and transportation partners. Our respective teams have worked tirelessly to build depth in key product categories, and to flow products to our stores and distribution centers as quickly and efficiently as possible. I would like to thank them for their ongoing efforts as we continue to navigate one of the most challenging environments we have ever faced. Beyond the current environment, we are focused on positioning ourselves for growth. We are investing in stores to drive further productivity, which Ted will discuss. We are enhancing the interconnected shopping experience, by investing to remove friction for our customers wherever possible. And the build-out of our supply chain vision continues to progress, and we remain on track with our plans. We are encouraged by the results that we're seeing from buildings that we have stood up as we optimize and assort these facilities to unlock their full potential. We believe that the network we are building is unique to the market. It will not only enhance the customer experience from a delivery standpoint, but also expand the opportunity to capture wallet share gains with both new and existing customers, drive efficiency end-to-end, and leverage our scale to further extend our low-cost position in home improvement. In the near term, we remain focused on being flexible and agile as we navigate this dynamic environment. But we also continue to leverage the momentum of our strategic investments to further enhance the interconnected shopping experience in support of our goals to drive growth faster than the market in any environment, further strengthen our position as a low-cost provider in home improvement with a relentless focus on productivity and efficiency, and deliver exceptional shareholder value. Our ability to invest for the future while also managing the most fluid environment in our company's history is a direct result of our associates and their extraordinary efforts. I want to thank all of our associates for the many ways they continue to live our values by serving our customers and communities. In conjunction with Veterans Day last week, the Home Depot Foundation announced that it has now surpassed $400 million invested in support of U.S. military veterans since 2011. This brings us closer to achieving our goal to invest a half a billion dollars in veteran causes by 2025. We honor and support our military veterans and families, and we thank them for their service to our country. And with that, let me turn the call over to Ted.