Home Depot Profit Rises 13%

Home Depot Inc. reported Tuesday that its fiscal first-quarter profit rose more than 13% on solid revenue growth.

The results beat Wall Street expectations, and Home Depot shares rose.

The nation’s largest home improvement store chain also said it was closing 15 of its design centers, affecting as many as 2,000 employees.

The Atlanta-based company reported net income of $1.25 billion, or 57 cents a share, for the three months ended May 1, compared with $1.1 billion, or 49 cents, a year earlier.

Excluding one-time items, Home Depot said it earned $1.31 billion, or 60 cents a share. On that basis, analysts surveyed by Thomson First Call were expecting 55 cents a share.

Revenue in the quarter rose 8% to $18.97 billion but missed analysts’ estimates of $19.26 billion.

Same-store sales -- a measure that compares sales at stores open at least a year -- rose a modest 2.1% in the quarter, contrasted with a 7.7% increase a year earlier.

Home Depot shares rose $1.49 to $38.86 on the New York Stock Exchange.

Home Depot said that it would close 15 of its 54 Expo Design Center stores, including one in Concord, Calif., over an unspecified period, and that it planned to convert five other Expo stores to the Home Depot store format. None of the eight Expo stores in Southern California is affected by the moves.

About 2,000 Expo employees could be affected by the closures and conversions, although the company’s goal is that there not be any net job losses. Home Depot’s total workforce is about 325,000.

Four of the design centers that will be closed are in Texas, three are in Illinois, two are in Michigan and, in addition to the Concord store, one each in Colorado, Georgia, Kansas, Massachusetts and Ohio. Two of the design centers that will be converted are in New York, one is in East Palo Alto, Calif., and one each in Michigan and New Jersey.