“We expect net interest expense of approximately $2.2 billion”

Why this grade

Before the fiscal year came due, management raised its net interest expense guidance from approximately $2.2 billion to approximately $2.3 billion. Since interest expense is a cost, higher is unfavorable, so this revision represents a miss against the original commitment.

Deviation basis: percent increase in guided net interest expense ($2.2B to $2.3B), unfavorable since it is a cost

In context

“total sales growth to outpace sales comp with sales growth of approximately positive 2.8% and comp sales growth of approximately positive 1%. Compared to fiscal 2024. Total sales growth will benefit from the SRS acquisition, The new stores we opened in fiscal 2024 and plan to open in fiscal 2025. And for the year, we expect SRS to deliver mid-single digit organic Growth. Our gross margin is expected to be approximately 33.4% essentially flat compared to fiscal 2024. Further, we expect operating margin of approximately 13% and adjusted operating margin of approximately 13.4%. This primarily reflects natural deleverage from sales and continued investments across the business as well as reflecting the mix impact from the SRS acquisition. Our effective tax rate is targeted approximately 24.5% We expect net interest expense of approximately $2.2 billion We expect our diluted earnings per share to decline approximately 3% compared to fiscal 2024 when comparing the fifty-two weeks in fiscal 2025 to the fifty-three weeks in fiscal 2024. We expect our adjusted diluted earnings per share to decline approximately 2% compared to fiscal 2024. On a fifty-two week basis, it would be essentially flat compared to fiscal 2024. We plan to continue investing in our business with capital expenditures of approximately 2.5% of sales for fiscal 2025. We believe that we will grow market share in any environment by strengthening our competitive position with our customers delivering the best customer experience and home improvement. Before opening the call for questions, we are pleased to announce that we will be holding an investor conference on December 9,”