“We continue to expect gross margin rate for the full year to be up slightly as compared to prior year.”

In context

“Q1 performance was in line with our expectations, excluding seasonal categories. However, as Bill mentioned, spring is truly a first half event and the timing is driven by when weather breaks across the country. Over the past 2-plus weeks, we are seeing improved trends in our seasonal categories, which is reinforcing our confidence that we will deliver first half results in line with our full year guide. This morning, we reaffirmed our full year 2022 financial outlook. We continue to expect 2022 sales in a range of $97 billion to $99 billion for the year, representing comparable sales of down 1% to up 1%. We continue to expect Pro to outpace DIY for the year. As a reminder, our 2022 sales outlook includes a 53rd week, which equates to approximately $1 billion to $1.5 billion in sales. We continue to expect gross margin rate for the full year to be up slightly as compared to prior year. However, as lumber prices declined several weeks earlier than we expected, gross margin pressure will shift into Q2 as we continue to turn through our higher cost inventory layers. As a result, we now expect to see our gross margin for the first half to be up slightly compared with our gross margin in the first half of 2021. We also continue to expect operating margin in the range of 12.8% to 13% for the full year, driven by a slightly higher gross margin rate and continued execution of our PPI initiatives. We are also confirming our outlook for diluted earnings per share in a range of $13.10 to $13.60. In 2022, we still expect capital expenditures of approximately $2 billion, and we remain committed to our disciplined capital allocation strategy with approximately $12 billion in share”