“We continue to expect Pro to outpace DIY in 2022.”

In context

“ocation strategy, we delivered return on invested capital of 35% for the year, up 760 basis points from 2020. Now turning to our 2022 financial outlook. We closed out 2021 ahead of the expectations that we presented at our December 15 investor update. Month-to-date, February, U.S. comparable sales trends are in line with our fourth quarter performance on a 2-year basis. And based on the continued momentum that we are seeing in Pro sales, as well as higher expectations for commodity inflation, we are raising our sales outlook for 2022 to a range of between $97 billion to $99 billion for the year, representing comparable sales of down 1% to up 1%. Now please keep in mind that our outlook assumes that lumber pricing will return to a more normalized level in the second half of the year. We continue to expect Pro to outpace DIY in 2022. Keep in mind that we are cycling over an estimated 300 basis points of stimulus in the first quarter. Also, as a reminder, our 2022 sales outlook includes a 53rd week, which equates to approximately $1 billion to $1.5 billion in sales. We now expect gross margin rate in 2022 to be up slightly as compared to the prior year. With higher projected sales, improving gross margin outlook and continued execution of our PPI initiatives, we are raising our outlook for operating margin to a range of 12.8% to 13% from a prior range of 12.5% to 12.8% for the full year. We are also raising our outlook for diluted earnings per share to a range of $13.10 to $13.60 from a prior range of $12.25 to $13. In 2022, we continue to expect capital expenditures of approximately $2 billion and share repurchases”