Investing.com - The largest U.S. home improvement retailer Home Depot (NYSE:HD) reported lower-than-expected first quarter earnings and revenue figures, it announced early Tuesday.
Home Depot said adjusted earnings per share came in at $0.96 cents in the first three months of the year, below expectations for adjusted earnings of $0.99 cents per share.
The company’s first quarter revenue totaled $19.69 billion, missing forecasts for revenue of $19.95 billion.
Comparable store sales for the first quarter of fiscal 2014 advanced 2.6%, while comp sales for the U.S. stores rose 3.3%.
The company reaffirmed that it expects fiscal 2014 sales will be up approximately 4.8% from fiscal 2013.
"The first quarter was impacted by a slow start to the spring selling season. But we had solid results in non-weather impacted markets and expect our sales for the year to grow in line with the guidance we previously provided," said Frank Blake, chairman and CEO.
The outlook for U.S. equity markets was mildly lower. The Dow pointed to a loss of 0.1% at the open, the S&P 500 lost 0.1%, while the Nasdaq 100 indicated a decline of 0.1% at the open.