Home Depot revises guidance upward following tender offer

<p>The Home Depot Inc., the world's largest home improvement store chain, revised its outlook Monday, paring its expected decline in earnings per share from continuing operations thanks to a tender offer that will reduce the number of its outstanding shares.</p><p>The Atlanta-based company said it expects earnings per share from continuing operations to decline 7 percent to 9 percent for fiscal 2007. It had previously forecast a decline of 12 percent to 15 percent for the year.</p><p>The revision follows Home Depot's purchase of nearly 290 million shares of its stock at a price of $37 per share, for a total cost of $10.7 billion excluding fees and expenses related to the offer.</p><p>The company used the proceeds of the sale of its wholesale distribution business to pay for the majority of the tender offer.</p><p>The shares represent 14.6 percent of the shares outstanding on Aug. 31.</p><p>With completion of the tender offer, Home Depot said it now has roughly 1.69 billion shares outstanding.</p><p>The fiscal 2007 earnings per share guidance reflects 52 weeks and does not include the impact of a 53rd sales week, Home Depot said.</p><p>The company projects that the 53rd week will add roughly 3 cents to its consolidated earnings per share guidance for fiscal 2007.</p><p>The company's revised earnings per share guidance for the year reflects its projection that the number of its outstanding shares will be reduced by roughly 165 million and 290 million shares in the third and four quarters, respectively.</p><p>The Home Depot has seen sales and profits fall off amid the downturn in the housing market. Chief Financial Officer Carol Tome reiterated at an investor conference Monday that the company expects the housing problems to continue through the end of this year and into 2008.</p><p>___</p><p>On the Net:</p><p>HASH(0x2dec0a8)</p>

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