The Home Depot, the world's largest home improvement retailer, today reported first quarter of fiscal 2014 net earnings of $1.4 billion, or $1.00 per diluted share, compared with net earnings of $1.2 billion, or$0.83 per diluted share, in the same period of fiscal 2013. For the first quarter of fiscal 2014, diluted earnings per share increased 20.5 percent from the same period in the prior year.

First quarter of fiscal 2014 results reflect a benefit to earnings, net of tax, of $61 million, or $0.04 per diluted share, related to the sale of a portion of the company's equity ownership in HD Supply Holdings, Inc.

Total sales for the first quarter of fiscal 2014 were $19.7 billion, a 2.9 percent increase from the first quarter of fiscal 2013. Comparable store sales for the first quarter of fiscal 2014 were positive 2.6 percent, and comp sales for the U.S. stores were positive 3.3 percent.

"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. "I would like to thank our associates for their hard work and dedication."

Updated Fiscal 2014 Guidance

The Company reaffirmed that it expects fiscal 2014 sales will be up approximately 4.8 percent from fiscal 2013. The Company raised its fiscal 2014 diluted earnings-per-share guidance and now expects diluted earnings-per-share to be up approximately 17.6 percent to $4.42 for the year. This earnings-per-share guidance includes the $0.04 per diluted share benefit related to the sale of HD Supply common stock, the benefit of the Company's year-to-date share repurchases and the Company's intent to repurchase $3.75 billion in additional shares over the remainder of the year.

The Home Depot will conduct a conference call today at 9 a.m. ET to discuss information included in this news release and related matters. The conference call will be available in its entirety through a webcast and replay at earnings.homedepot.com.

At the end of the first quarter, the Company operated a total of 2,263 retail stores in all 50 states, the District of Columbia,Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, 10 Canadian provinces and Mexico. The Company employs more than 300,000 associates. The Home Depot's stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: HD) and is included in the Dow Jones industrial average and Standard & Poor's 500 index.