Home Depot, Inc. (The)

Greetings, and welcome to the Home Depot first quarter 2024 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 first quarter 2024 earnings call. Joining us on our call today are Ted Decker, Chair, President, and CEO, Ann Marie Campbell, Senior Executive Vice President, Billy Bastic, Executive Vice President of Merchandising, and Richard McVale, 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 our Investor Relations Department at 770-384-2387. Before I turn the call over to Ted, 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 presentation will also include certain non-GAAP measures. Reconciliation of these measures is provided on our website. Now, let me turn the call over to Ted.

Thank you, Isabelle, and good morning, everyone. Sales for the first quarter were $36.4 billion, down 2.3% from the same period last year. Cons sales declined 2.8% from the same period last year, and our U.S. stores had negative cons of 3.2%. Diluted earnings per share were $3.63 in the first quarter compared to $3.82 in the first quarter last year. The team executed a high level in the quarter and continued to grow market share. While the quarter was impacted by a delayed start to spring and continued softness in certain larger discretionary projects, We feel great about our store readiness, product assortment, and associate engagement. Our associates are energized and ready to serve our customers as spring breaks across the country. As you will hear from Billy, where weather was favorable, we saw good customer engagement and strength in outdoor projects. In addition, our focus remains on creating the best interconnected experience, growing pro wallet share with a differentiated set of capabilities, and building new stores. Driving sales growth with our pro customers remains one of our top focus areas. Remember, we operate in a $45 trillion asset class, which represents the installed base of homes in the United States. And we serve a highly fragmented addressable market of approximately $1 trillion. Within that TAM, the greatest opportunity is with the residential pro contractor who shops across many categories of home improvement products, while working on complex projects. We've defined that specific opportunity as an approximately $250 billion TAM, of which we have relatively little share today. We also know that to effectively serve this TAM, we need an expanded set of capabilities and services that we refer to as our pro ecosystem. And while the store remains the center of that ecosystem, we are developing more fulfillment options a dedicated sales force, specific digital assets, trade credit, and order management capabilities geared at the residential pro who shops across categories. As we've shared with you before, our more mature markets with this pro ecosystem have seen great success, so we're expanding to other markets. As you heard last quarter, we'll have the foundational elements of our ecosystem in 17 markets by the end of the fiscal year. And while these 17 markets are currently at different maturity levels, they are outperforming our other large pro markets in aggregate. Earlier this quarter, we announced our intent to acquire SRS, a residential specialty trade distributor with a leading position in three large, highly fragmented specialty trade verticals serving the roofer, the pool contractor, and the landscape professionals. SRS is complementary to the ecosystem we've been building, giving us another avenue to more effectively serve the complex project occasion. They also give us the right to win with a Specialty Trade Pro customer. SRS does an exceptional job serving the Specialty Trade Pro, who typically only shops one category and needs specialized capabilities to complete their project. In addition, SRS is an exceptionally well-run business with a world-class management team. As we build out our own ecosystem, we can leverage their expertise in deep product catalog in the verticals in which they operate. We have significant growth opportunities in front of us, and we are very happy with the operational execution in our core business. And despite pressure in the market, we continue to invest in our business. We are gaining share of Wallet with our customers, whether they are shopping in our stores, on our digital assets, or through our pro ecosystem. Our merchants, store and met teams, supplier partners, and supply chain teams are always ready to serve in any environment. They did an outstanding job delivering value and service to our customers throughout the quarter, and I'd like to close by thanking them for their dedication and hard work. With that, let me turn the call over to Ann.