The Home Depot, the world's largest home improvement retailer, today reported sales of $23.8 billion for the second quarter of fiscal 2014, a 5.7 percent increase from the second quarter of fiscal 2013. Comparable store sales for the second quarter of fiscal 2014 were positive 5.8 percent, and comp sales for U.S. stores were positive 6.4 percent.

Net earnings for the second quarter were $2.1 billion, or $1.52 per diluted share, compared with net earnings of $1.8 billion, or $1.24 per diluted share, in the same period of fiscal 2013. For the second quarter of fiscal 2014, diluted earnings per share increased 22.6 percent from the same period in the prior year.

"In the second quarter, our spring seasonal business rebounded, and we saw strong performance in the core of the store and across all of our geographies," said Frank Blake, chairman and CEO. "I would like to thank our associates for their hard work and dedication, especially at this time of increased demand."

Updated Fiscal 2014 Guidance

The Company confirmed that it expects fiscal 2014 sales will be up approximately 4.8 percent from fiscal 2013. Based on its second quarter performance and its outlook for the year, the Company raised its fiscal 2014 diluted earnings-per-share guidance and now expects diluted earnings per share to be up approximately 20.2 percent to $4.52 for the year. This earnings-per-share guidance includes the benefit of the Company's year-to-date share repurchases of $3.5 billion and the Company's intent to repurchase an additional $3.5 billion of 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 second quarter, the Company operated a total of 2,264 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 and is included in the Dow Jones industrial average and Standard & Poor's 500 index.