ATLANTA, June 10 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- The Home Depot(R), the world's largest home improvement retailer, will today outline its key strategic priorities and discuss its long-term operating targets at its 2009 Investor and Analyst Conference. In addition, the Company has updated its 2009 EPS guidance.

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Today's conference will begin at 8:30 a.m. ET and will be available in its entirety through a live webcast and replay at homedepot.com in the Investor Relations section.

Strategic Priorities

The Company will discuss its three areas of strategic focus and the specifics behind each: (1) customer service, (2) product authority and (3) productivity and efficiency driven by disciplined capital allocation.

• The Company's focus on customer service is anchored on the principles of taking care of associates, putting customers first and simplifying the business.
• The Company's focus on product authority includes an emphasis on re-establishing a merchandising driven business, providing product that meets customer project needs, and building tools for effective implementation.
• The Company's approach to driving productivity and efficiency will be achieved through disciplined capital allocation focused on the existing core retail business, transforming the supply chain and improving information technology.

Long-Term Operating Targets

The Company believes that its strategic priorities, along with a correction in the home improvement market, will allow it to achieve an operating margin of approximately 10 percent and a return on invested capital of approximately 15 percent.

Updated FY2009 EPS Guidance

Today the Company is updating its FY2009 EPS guidance and now expects earnings per share from continuing operations to be flat to down 7 percent from last year. On an adjusted basis, the Company now expects earnings per share from continuing operations to decline by 20 to 26 percent. The Company previously announced its expectation that earnings per share from continuing operations in FY2009 would be down 7 percent from last year, and down 26 percent on an adjusted basis.

The Company reaffirmed its sales, comparable store sales and gross margin guidance for the 2009 fiscal year. The Company still expects sales to decline by approximately 9 percent, comparable store sales to be high single digit negative and for gross margin expansion to be flat to slightly positive.

The Home Depot is the world's largest home improvement specialty retailer, with 2,238 retail stores in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, 10 Canadian provinces, Mexico and China. In fiscal 2008, The Home Depot had sales of $71.3 billion and earnings from continuing operations of $2.3 billion. 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.

Certain statements contained herein constitute "forward-looking statements" as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements may relate to, among other things, the demand for our products and services, net sales growth, comparable store sales, store openings and closures, state of the economy, state of residential construction, housing and home improvement markets, in-stock positions, commodity price inflation and deflation, implementation of store initiatives, continuation of reinvestment plans, net earnings performance, earnings per share, capital allocation and expenditures, liquidity, return on invested capital, the effect of charges, the planned recapitalization of the Company, the ability to issue debt on terms and at rates acceptable to us, merchandising, expense leverage and other operating strategies, other factors affecting earnings and sales, and fiscal 2009 financial guidance. These forward-looking statements are based on currently available information and current assumptions, expectations and projections about future events. You are cautioned not to place undue reliance on our forward-looking statements as they speak only as of the date hereof, and we undertake no obligation to update these statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances except as may be required by law. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to future events, risks and uncertainties - many of which are beyond our control or are currently unknown to us - as well as potentially inaccurate assumptions that could cause actual results to differ materially from our expectations and projections. Additional information regarding risks and uncertainties include but are not limited to those described in Item 1A, "Risk Factors," and elsewhere in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for our fiscal year ended February 1, 2009 and our subsequent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q.

The Company has supplemented its fiscal 2009 EPS guidance with a non-GAAP measurement to reflect the impact of store rationalization charges, business rationalization charges related to the exit of EXPO, THD Design Center, Yardbirds and HD Bath businesses, charges related to restructuring of support functions and an investment impairment charge related to HD Supply. The Company believes this non-GAAP measurement provides management and investors with meaningful information to understand and analyze the Company's performance. However, this supplemental information should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for the comparable GAAP measurement.