“Additionally, we expect net interest expense of approximately $1.3 billion as we plan to repay $2.5 billion in debt maturities this year but will also have less interest income due to lower short-term investment rates.”

In context

“part of our updated total home strategy will enable us to grow faster than the market and take share. Taking all of this into account, for 2025, we are expecting sales ranging from $83.5 billion to $84.5 billion with comparable sales in a range of flat to up 1%. We expect operating margin in a range of 12.3% to 12.4% with PPI initiatives across store operations, merchandising, and supply chain driving approximately $1 billion in productivity this year. This productivity will offset pressure from merit increases and general operating cost inflation, elevated healthcare expenses, investments in our total home strategic priorities, and higher depreciation expense, which is forecasted to increase approximately $100 million over prior year as we lean into our tech-driven strategic investments. Additionally, we expect net interest expense of approximately $1.3 billion as we plan to repay $2.5 billion in debt maturities this year but will also have less interest income due to lower short-term investment rates. These assumptions result in expected full-year diluted earnings per share of approximately $12.15 to $12.40. We also expect capital expenditures of approximately $2.5 billion as we invest in our total home strategic priorities and begin to ramp up new store builds. In 2025, we plan to open five to ten new stores. To assist with your modeling, here are a few items to keep in mind for the cadence of the year. We expect comp sales in the first half to be roughly flat with some spring demand moving from the first quarter into the second quarter where we are cycling particularly poor weather. Taking this into account, we expect first-quarter comp sales to be approximately 200 basis points below the bottom end of our full-year guide. We also expect first-quarter operating margin rate to be appr”