See how several home improvement and other big-box retailers performed in the fourth quarter of 2022 with a round-up of Q4 financials.
The Home Depot
Sales for The Home Depot for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2022 were $35.8 billion, an increase of $112 million, or 0.3% from the fourth quarter of fiscal 2021. Comparable sales for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2022 decreased 0.3%, and comparable sales in the U.S. decreased 0.3%.
Net earnings for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2022 were $3.4 billion, or $3.30 per diluted share, compared with net earnings of $3.4 billion, or $3.21 per diluted share, in the same period of fiscal 2021. For the fourth quarter of fiscal 2022, diluted earnings per share increased 2.8% from the same period in the prior year.
Lowe’s
Lowe’s Cos. reported net earnings of $957 million and diluted earnings per share (EPS) of $1.58 for the fourth quarter of 2022 compared to diluted EPS of $1.78 in the fourth quarter of 2021. Total sales for the fourth quarter were $22.4 billion compared to $21.3 billion in the fourth quarter of 2021. Comparable sales for the fourth quarter decreased 1.5%, and comparable sales for the U.S. home improvement business decreased 0.7%.
The fourth quarter of fiscal 2022 consisted of 14 weeks, compared with 13 weeks for the prior year. The 14th week added approximately $1.4 billion in sales for the quarter and the year. Comparable sales are based on a comparable number of weeks from the prior year.
“We continue to make strides on our Total Home strategy, with 10% Pro growth in the U.S. and 5% increase in Lowes.com sales. In recognition of the frontline leaders and associates who delivered these results, we are pleased to award $220 million in discretionary and profit-sharing bonuses,” says Marvin R. Ellison, Lowe’s chairman, president and CEO. “I am confident we are making the right investments, in our associates and in our business, to drive long-term growth. We also continue to improve operating margin, demonstrating our ongoing focus on driving productivity across the company.”
Target
In the fourth quarter, comparable sales for Target increased 0.7%, on top of 8.9% in Q4 2021, driven entirely by an increase in guest traffic. Same-day services (in-store pickup, Drive Up, and Shipt), which represent more than 10% of total sales, increased 4.3% in the quarter.
Inventory at the end of the quarter was 3% lower than in 2021, despite an increase in early receipts compared with last year. Inventory in discretionary categories was approximately 13% lower than a year ago, partially offset by higher inventory in frequency categories.
“We’re pleased that our business delivered comparable sales growth in the fourth quarter, in what continues to be a very challenging environment. Strength in Food & Beverage, Beauty and Household Essentials offset ongoing softness in discretionary categories. This performance highlights the benefit of our multi-category merchandise assortment, which drives relevance with our guests in any environment, and is a key reason we grew traffic every quarter last year,” says Brian Cornell, chairman and chief executive officer of Target Corp.
Tractor Supply Co.
For Q4 2022, Tractor Supply Co. reported that net sales increased 20.7% to $4.01 billion from $3.32 billion in Q4 2021. The fourth quarter included an extra sales week as part of the Company’s 53-week calendar in 2022, which represented 6.8 percentage points of the 20.7% sales growth. Comparable store sales increased 8.6%, as compared to an increase of 12.7% in the prior year’s fourth quarter, driven by comparable average ticket growth of 6.3% and comparable average transaction count increase of 2.3%.
Gross profit increased 21.7% to $1.36 billion from $1.12 billion in the prior year’s fourth quarter, and gross margin increased 28 basis points to 34% from 33.8% in the prior year’s fourth quarter. Net income increased 22.4% to $270.9 million from $221.3 million, and diluted earnings per share (EPS) increased 25.9% to $2.43 from $1.93 in the fourth quarter of 2021. The benefit of the 53rd week contributed approximately $0.16 to diluted EPS.
The Company opened 39 new Tractor Supply stores and six new Petsense by Tractor Supply stores in the fourth quarter of 2022. In October 2022, Tractor Supply acquired 81 stores from Orscheln Farm and Home that will be rebranded to Tractor Supply by the end of 2023.
“Tractor Supply had another remarkable year in 2022 as we continued to gain market share and advance our strategic initiatives,” says Hal Lawton, chief executive officer of Tractor Supply. “For the fourth quarter, while we had an incremental benefit from the late December winter storm, our underlying results were at the high end of our expectations. Our strong results throughout 2022 are directly attributable to the dedication of the more than 50,000 Tractor Supply Team Members who are passionate about Life Out Here. The team achieved significant milestones in the history of Tractor Supply including record sales and profitability and executed meaningful investments to enable future growth. In just over two years since introducing our Life Out Here strategy, we have executed Project Fusion in nearly 30% of our store base, built more than 300 garden centers, expanded our digital and supply chain capabilities and grown our Neighbor’s Club membership 47% to more than 28 million members. These investments are resonating with our customers as we exited the year with strong traffic growth.”
Walmart
In the fourth quarter of 2022, Walmart saw total revenues up $164 billion, up 7.3%, while U.S. comp sales grew 8.3% and 13.9% on a two-year stack with continued market share gained in grocery.
Walmart U.S. e-commerce growth was 17% and 18% on a two-year stack and Sam’s Club comp sales increased 12.2% and 22.6% on a two-year stack. Adjusted operating income was $6.4 billion, an increase of 6.9%.
“We’re excited about our momentum,” says Doug McMillon, president and CEO. “The team delivered a strong quarter to finish the year, and as our results in the last two quarters show, they acted quickly and aggressively to address the inventory and cost challenges we faced last year. We built momentum in the third quarter and that continues. We are well-positioned to start this fiscal year.”
PPG
Net sales for PPG were down slightly from Q4 2021, posted at $4,185,000 for Q4 2022. Net income was also down 11% from $267,000,000 in 2021 to $238,000,000 in 2022. Adjusted net income dropped 4% from $298,000,000 to $286,000,000 in Q4.
“We continued to make good progress on our focus to achieve full operating margin recovery, as year-over-year earnings improved in both segments despite more acute pandemic-related demand disruptions in China,” says Tim Knavish, PPG president and chief executive officer. “This earnings improvement was driven by aggregate selling price increases that totaled 19% on a two-year stacked basis, as we remained focused on mitigating the significant cumulative cost inflation incurred the past two years.”
Sherwin-Williams
Sherwin-Williams sales for Q4 2022 increased 9.8% to $5.2 million because of low double-digit pricing, flat volume and low-single-digit contributions from acquisitions partially offset by low-single-digit FX headwinds. Gross profits were up 18.8%, posted at $2.2 million in 2022 over the $1.8 million posted in 2021.
Diluted net income per share included a charge of $0.21 per share for acquisition-related amortization expense and charges totaling $0.20 per share related to restructuring actions including non-cash trademark impairments.
“Sherwin-Williams delivered strong fourth-quarter results compared to the same period a year ago, including high single-digit percentage sales growth, significant year-over-year gross margin improvement, expanded adjusted operating margins in all three segments, strong double-digit adjusted diluted net income per share growth and strong EBITDA growth,” says chairman and CEO John G. Morikis. “Our strong fourth quarter performance led to record full-year sales, which increased 11.1% to $22.1 billion. Full year adjusted diluted net income per share also increased to a record level. Additionally, we generated strong net operating cash in the year, which enabled us to invest $883 million in share repurchases, pay $619 million in dividends and deploy $1 billion to complete five acquisitions that will add to our solutions and capabilities.”