Home Depot Due to Report Q2 Fiscal 2026 Tuesday: The Guidance Baseline, the Year-Ago Bar, and an Absent CEO

by Leah Avraham · August 18, 2026

Previews Correspondent, Earnings Dispatch

The Home Depot is scheduled to report second-quarter fiscal 2026 results on Tuesday, Aug. 18. In an Aug. 4 announcement posted to its investor relations site, the company said it would host its second-quarter earnings conference call "Tuesday, August 18, at 9 a.m. ET," with a webcast on its IR site and an archived replay available from around noon that day. A July 23 Barchart preview carried by Yahoo Finance described the report as coming before the market open; Home Depot's own scheduling release specified only the 9 a.m. call time.

As of this writing, in the early hours before the open, no second-quarter figures have been released, and Home Depot has not issued a preannouncement or a revision to its outlook since May. Everything that follows is drawn from documents the company has already published, plus consensus estimates published by third parties. None of it should be read as a result.

Start with the calendar, because Home Depot's fiscal labelling does not line up with the calendar year and is a routine source of confusion. In its Feb. 24, 2026 release, the company reported full-year results for fiscal 2025, a 52-week year that ended Feb. 1, 2026. The year now underway is fiscal 2026. Its first quarter ended May 3, 2026 and covered 13 weeks. Tuesday's report therefore covers the second quarter of fiscal 2026, a period that ran through early August.

The reference point for Tuesday is the guidance Home Depot reaffirmed on May 19 alongside first-quarter results. That outlook calls for total sales growth of approximately 2.5% to 4.5%; comparable sales growth of approximately flat to 2.0%; 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%; roughly 15 new stores; 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.

The earnings line in that guidance is stated on two separate bases, and the distinction matters. Home Depot guided to diluted earnings-per-share growth of approximately flat to 4.0% from $14.23 in fiscal 2025 — a GAAP figure — and, separately, to adjusted diluted earnings-per-share growth of approximately flat to 4.0% from $14.69 in fiscal 2025, an adjusted figure. The two ranges are the same in percentage terms but start from different numbers.

First-quarter fiscal 2026 results, as the company reported them on May 19: net sales of $41.8 billion, up 4.8% from $39.9 billion; comparable sales up 0.6%, with U.S. comparable sales up 0.4%; comparable transactions down 1.3% and comparable average ticket up 2.2%. Gross margin was 33.0%, down 80 basis points, and operating margin was 11.9%, down 100 basis points, against an adjusted operating margin of 12.3%. GAAP net earnings were $3.3 billion, down 4.2%, and GAAP diluted EPS was $3.30 versus $3.45. Adjusted diluted EPS was $3.43 versus $3.56.

Chair, President and Chief Executive Ted Decker said in that release that "Our first quarter results were in line with our expectations. The underlying demand in our business was relatively similar to what we saw throughout fiscal 2025, despite greater consumer uncertainty and housing affordability pressure."

The bar Tuesday's numbers will be measured against comes from Home Depot's Aug. 19, 2025 release for the second quarter of fiscal 2025, a quarter that ended Aug. 3, 2025. The company reported net sales of $45.3 billion, up 4.9%; comparable sales up 1.0% and U.S. comparable sales up 1.4%; comparable transactions down 0.4% and comparable average ticket up 1.4%; customer transactions of 446.8 million and average ticket of $90.01. Operating margin was 14.5% and adjusted operating margin 14.8%. GAAP net earnings were $4.6 billion and GAAP diluted EPS was $4.58; adjusted diluted EPS was $4.68.

On the estimate side, a Zacks Investment Research preview published Aug. 13 put the consensus at $4.71 per share on revenue of $47.5 billion, with customer transactions of 439.99 million and average ticket of $92.48. The Barchart preview from July 23 also cited $4.71, describing it as diluted EPS "up marginally from $4.68 in the year-ago quarter."

Neither publisher labelled that $4.71 explicitly as GAAP or adjusted, which is worth flagging rather than glossing over. The $4.68 comparison figure Barchart used matches Home Depot's adjusted diluted EPS for the year-ago quarter, not the $4.58 the company reported on a GAAP basis — which points to the consensus being an adjusted number. Readers comparing Tuesday's headline to $4.71 should confirm which line of Home Depot's release they are actually looking at. The same Barchart piece refers to EPS of "$14.69 in fiscal 2026" without saying whether it means GAAP or adjusted; $14.69 is Home Depot's adjusted diluted EPS for the year ended Feb. 1, 2026, and the company itself calls that year fiscal 2025. The figure agrees, the label does not.

Management's own framing of the back half, from the transcript of the May 19 first-quarter call, was cautious on demand and specific about what drives the comparison. Decker said the company was "not looking at a marked improvement in underlying demand" and was instead "looking at a higher comp in the second half of the year, and that is solely driven by a return to normal storm activity." Chief Financial Officer Richard McPhail said the company was "heading into the second quarter with the intent to execute and take share," and that on costs, "the costs on the horizon, since we spoke last quarter, have at least moved towards a bias towards an increase."

On the mix, merchandising chief Billy Bastek said on that call that "larger discretionary projects remain under pressure," while Decker said "our Pro business outperformed consumer yet again this quarter" and Pro head Mike Rowe said "sales to those large Pros working on complex projects are showing stronger growth versus our overall Pro growth." McPhail said of SRS Distribution that "we expect them to deliver mid-single-digit positive organic growth for the year." SRS completed its acquisition of HVAC distributor Mingledorff's on May 11, 2026, according to a company release that day.

Sitting behind all of this is the scenario Home Depot laid out on Dec. 9, 2025, when it established a preliminary fiscal 2026 outlook alongside a separate "market recovery case" assuming housing activity picks up. The preliminary outlook — total sales growth of approximately 2.5% to 4.5%, comparable sales growth of approximately flat to 2%, and diluted earnings-per-share growth of approximately flat to 4% — is the set that later hardened into the guidance now in force. The market recovery case is the more expansive one: total sales growth of approximately 5% to 6%, comparable sales growth of approximately 4% to 5%, and diluted earnings-per-share growth in the mid-to-high single digits. McPhail said then that "Our Market Recovery Case reflects our performance expectations once we see momentum in housing activity and increased spend on larger projects driven by pent-up demand." That case is not guidance, and the release attached no timeline to it.

The report also arrives in an unusual governance setting. On Aug. 12, Home Depot said Decker was taking a temporary medical leave of absence and that it expected him back within the next few months. Senior Executive Vice President Ann-Marie Campbell is overseeing day-to-day operations, McPhail is overseeing financial management and the Pro subsidiaries, and independent lead director Greg Brenneman is chairing the board in Decker's absence. Brenneman said in the release: "The Home Depot has the best management team in retail. 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." That release did not say who would lead Tuesday's call and did not address guidance. It followed a July 30 organizational realignment that folded private-label merchants into core merchandising, consolidated online, loyalty and financial services teams under interconnected retail, and turned the Office of Integration into an Office of Pro Acceleration led by McPhail; that release disclosed no costs, charges, or change to segments or guidance.

Markets went into the print flat to lower. The Motley Fool's Aug. 17 wrap put the S&P 500 at 7,747, down 0.50%, the Dow at 53,460, down 0.51%, and the Nasdaq Composite at 26,647, down 0.31%, with the 10-year Treasury yield at 4.68% and the 30-year at 5.3%, which the piece described as its highest mark since 2007. Whatever Tuesday's release contains, it will not by itself settle the housing question underneath the guidance: a single quarter's comparable sales figure, on a base management has said is being lifted mainly by a normalized storm comparison, is a narrow read on whether the market recovery case is any closer. This article is a preview of a scheduled disclosure and is not investment advice.