Home Depot's Self-Improvement

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Following Lowe's (NYSE: LOW) outstanding second-quarter earnings report yesterday, fellow retailer Home Depot (NYSE: HD) also put up some strong numbers this morning. The Atlanta-based mecca for construction companies and handymen alike boasted a positive same-store sale increase and double-digit top-line growth.

For the quarter ended August 3, Home Depot's revenues grew 10.5% to nearly $18 billion. Gross margins expanded to 31.2% from 30.4%. Same-store sales increased by 2.2%, reversing course from Q1's comps drop of 1.6% and Q4's decline of 6%.

The company earned $1.3 billion, up almost 10% over the prior-year quarter's net income. Earnings per share shook out at $0.56 vs. $0.50. Net margins remained roughly the same at 7.2%.

While Home Depot's results lagged Lowe's, the larger company is making progress with its remodeling and expansion efforts. Home Depot's definitely shelling out the cash for its growth, as it projected it would. It spent $1.7 billion in capital expenditures through the first six months of the year, compared to $1.3 billion during the same time period last year.

The company doesn't release a full cash flow statement with its earnings reports, but it did close the quarter with $5.2 billion in cash, a little below the $5.7 billion at the close of the prior year's Q2, but more than the $4.3 billion it had as of May 4.

After tanking in January to around $20 a share on pessimism that Lowe's was killing it, shares of Home Depot have risen to $32 and change. The company continues to make progress and is looking for 2003 sales growth of 9%-12% and earnings-per-diluted-share growth of 9%-14%.

Given that its share price has recovered so quickly this year, the stock's current P/E of around 21 assumes continued progress and benefits from the company's remodeling.