Dragged down by lower sales volumes, Home Depot Inc. () is projected to report declines in profit and revenue when it presents its latest earnings report🌟 before markets open on Tuesday.

Home Depot’s report comes after it beat earnings expectations last quarter, despite sales declining for the quarter. Softer consumer demand prompted the retailer to project revenue to come in lower by 3% to 4% for its full fiscal year.

For the fiscal fourth quarter ending in January, Home Depot is projected to bring in $34.52 billion in revenue, dropping nearly 4% from the same quarter a year earlier, according to research from Visible Alpha. Net income at the home improvement retailer is expected to drop 18% from the year-ago quarter to come in around $2.74 billion, while its 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:earnings per share (EPS) is projected to fall to $2.75 from $3.30. 

Key Metric: Big-Ticket Items

While U.S. retail sales were 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:strong in 2023, Home Depot has said that inflation still caused consumers to slow their purchases of 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:big-ticket items like washing machines, lawn mowers,🉐 🔜and furniture. 

In its third-quarter earnings report, the retailer’s average c🍸onsumer ticket 🎃declined slightly when compared to the prior year. For the fourth quarter, analysts project the average sales-per-square-foot for the retailer to decline for the fourth consecutive quarter, moving down more than 4%. 

Inflation has been easing, but in the latest report, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) showed that it has 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:been stubbornly slow to ease. Investors will be watching Home Depot's earnings report to see if inflation is still having an impact on the 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:home improvement market. 

Business Spotlight: Comparable Store Sales

After surging through the pandemic with strong sales growth fueled by the lockdown home improvement trend, that momentum came to halt in the first quarter of 2023, when Home Depot's revenue came in lower than expected for the 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:first time in 20 years. 

Home Depot is projected to post its fifth consecutive quarterly decline in 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:comparable store sales, but analysts aren’t expecting as s🍌tark a drop in the sales metric as was posted earlier in the fiscal year. For the holiday quarter, comparable store sales are projected to fall 4.4%, compared with a 0.3% decline in the same quarter a year ago. ♛

While Home Depot’s sales in recent quarters have been choppy, its share price has weathered the disruptions. Through Friday's close, Home Depot shares had gained 4.6% so far this year, after its shares added more than 8% in 2023.