Home Depot's Adjusted EPS Was $4.92 and Its GAAP EPS $4.79. Yahoo Finance Compared the $4.73 Consensus With $4.79 and Called It Adjusted.

by Henry Nakamura · August 18, 2026

Earnings Reporter, Earnings Dispatch

The Home Depot reported second-quarter fiscal 2026 results before the opening bell on Tuesday, saying sales rose 5.7% to $47.9 billion in the 13 weeks ended August 2, an increase of $2.6 billion. Comparable sales rose 1.7% across the company and 1.3% in the United States. Diluted earnings per share on a GAAP basis were $4.79, up 4.6% from a year ago, and adjusted diluted earnings per share were $4.92, up 5.1%. Net earnings were $4.8 billion against $4.6 billion a year earlier. The company reaffirmed the fiscal 2026 guidance it first issued on February 24 and said it would discuss the quarter on a conference call “today at 9 a.m. ET.”

Two earnings-per-share figures are therefore in circulation, and which one belongs beside the published consensus is not settled by either outlet that published that consensus. Benzinga's pre-earnings preview, dated Monday, put the Benzinga Pro consensus at $4.73 on $47.27 billion of revenue and said analysts expected second-quarter “earnings per share of $4.73, up from $4.68 in last year's second quarter.” It did not say whether $4.73 was a GAAP or an adjusted number. The $4.68 it used as its year-ago base is Home Depot's own reported adjusted diluted EPS for the second quarter of fiscal 2025, a quarter in which the GAAP figure was $4.58. That points toward an adjusted-basis consensus, but it is an inference drawn from the comparison base rather than anything Benzinga stated.

Yahoo Finance, citing Bloomberg-compiled estimates, carried the same $4.73 alongside revenue of $47.3 billion, comparable sales expected near 1% and U.S. comparable sales at 0.9% — marks Home Depot cleared on all three. Yahoo did use the word adjusted, but attached it to the GAAP line, writing: “Adjusted earnings grew 0.2% to $4.79, more than the $4.73 predicted.” Home Depot reports $4.79 as its GAAP diluted EPS, up 4.6%, and $4.92 as its adjusted diluted EPS, up 5.1%; neither change is 0.2%. Because the only outlet to name a basis named it against the figure the company itself labels GAAP, this article does not assert which basis the $4.73 was struck on. On either reading the reported number is above it, by 6 cents on the GAAP line or 19 cents on the adjusted line.

Home Depot spells out what its adjustment covers. “Adjusted operating income, adjusted operating margin, and adjusted diluted earnings per share are presented as supplemental financial measures in the evaluation of our business that are not required by or presented in accordance with GAAP,” the release states. “The Company excludes the impact of amortization expense from acquired intangible assets from adjusted operating income and adjusted operating margin, and the impact of amortization expense from acquired intangible assets, including the related tax effects, from adjusted diluted earnings per share.” The release adds that investors “should rely primarily on our GAAP results and use non-GAAP financial measures only supplementally in making investment decisions.” The same definition appeared in the second-quarter fiscal 2025 release a year ago, so this is a standing presentation rather than one introduced for this quarter.

The amortization being added back is identified with a single acquisition. The release discloses acquired intangible asset amortization of $125 million in the quarter and $244 million in the first half, against $87 million and $174 million in the year-ago periods, and ties those amounts to SRS Distribution, Inc., and its subsidiaries. The gap between the $4.79 GAAP figure and the $4.92 adjusted figure is that add-back and its tax effects, not a restructuring or an impairment.

Underneath the comparable-sales line, the two customer metrics diverged again. Comparable customer transactions fell 1.0% in the quarter while comparable average ticket rose 2.8% to $92.50. In the first quarter, ended May 3, transactions fell 1.3% and average ticket rose 2.2%. That makes two consecutive quarters in which the comparable-sales gain was carried by the size of the basket rather than the number of baskets. A footnote to the release states that “customer transactions and average ticket measures do not include results from HD Supply or SRS,” so they describe the retail business rather than the distribution units bolted onto it.

The distance between a 5.7% sales increase and a 1.7% comparable-sales increase is where those acquired businesses and new stores sit. Home Depot ended the quarter with 2,364 retail stores and more than 1,340 SRS locations. Gross profit rose 6.5% to $16.1 billion, growing faster than sales. Operating income rose 4.3% to $6.8 billion, growing slower than sales, for an operating margin of 14.3% and an adjusted operating margin of 14.7%.

Guidance was left alone. The company again listed total sales growth of approximately 2.5% to 4.5%, comparable sales growth of approximately flat to 2.0%, approximately 15 new stores, gross margin of approximately 33.1%, operating margin of approximately 12.4% to 12.6%, adjusted operating margin of approximately 12.8% to 13.0%, an effective tax rate of approximately 24.3%, net interest expense of approximately $2.3 billion, and capital expenditures of approximately 2.5% of total sales. Diluted earnings per share are still guided to grow approximately flat to 4.0% from $14.23 in fiscal 2025, and adjusted diluted earnings per share approximately flat to 4.0% from $14.69. Every one of those bullets is word for word what the company published with its first-quarter release on May 19, and word for word what it first issued with fourth-quarter and fiscal 2025 results on February 24.

That combination puts a defined arithmetic burden on the back half. Adding the two reported quarters, Home Depot has produced $8.35 of adjusted diluted EPS in the first half ($3.43 plus $4.92) and $8.09 on a GAAP basis ($3.30 plus $4.79). The reaffirmed adjusted range works out to roughly $14.69 to $15.28 for the year, leaving approximately $6.34 to $6.93 for the second half; the GAAP range of roughly $14.23 to $14.80 leaves about $6.14 to $6.71. Those second-half figures are our arithmetic on the company's own reported and guided numbers.

The quotations attached to the release came from two executives rather than the chief executive. “Our second quarter results exceeded our expectations,” said Richard McPhail, executive vice president and chief financial officer. “We saw broad based demand across the business as customers continued to engage in smaller projects.” Ann-Marie Campbell, senior executive vice president, said: “This quarter's results were a testament to our investments across the business and our associates' focus on customer service.” The first-quarter release in May had carried a quotation from Ted Decker, chair, president and chief executive.

On August 12, Home Depot announced interim management arrangements while Decker takes a temporary medical leave; the company said it expects him to return within the next few months. Campbell was given oversight of day-to-day operations, McPhail oversight of the company's financial management and Pro subsidiaries, and independent lead director Greg Brenneman was to chair the board during the leave. “The Home Depot has the best management team in retail,” Brenneman said in that announcement. “Both Ann-Marie and Richard are strong, seasoned executives who have worked together for more than 20 years. We are confident in Ann-Marie's and Richard's ability to lead the company during this time, and we look forward to Ted's return.”

Shares closed Monday's session at $337.88, down 0.29%, according to StockAnalysis.com; the same data show the stock fell 3.12% on August 12, the session in which the leave was disclosed, closing at $343.43 against the prior close of $354.48. Regular trading had not yet opened when this article was published.

Analyst positioning going into the print, as compiled by Benzinga on Monday, included a Hold rating at Stifel with a price target raised from $320 to $340, a Sector Perform rating at RBC Capital with a target raised from $340 to $343, and an Overweight rating at Wells Fargo with a target raised from $360 to $400. The same preview cited Placer.ai data showing Home Depot visits down 0.3% year over year in the second quarter, against a 0.4% gain for Lowe's. Benzinga did not specify whether that window matches Home Depot's fiscal quarter, which ran from May 4 to August 2, but the direction is the same as the 1.0% decline in comparable transactions reported on Tuesday.