Home Depot CEO sees housing bottom 'awfully close'
Can you stand another we’re-almost-there-but-not-quite-yet prediction on the end of the housing market bust?
Today’s comes from Home Depot Inc. CEO Frank Blake in a presentation at a Goldman Sachs & Co. retailing conference in New York.
"We don’t think we’ve hit the bottom, but certainly from where we are now, at least in any historic context, we’re getting awfully close to the bottom," Blake said, according to Bloomberg News.
"We don’t think we’re at the bottom yet, but we think we can probably see it from here," he said.
Home Depot’s earnings have declined for eight consecutive quarters. The Atlanta company’s stock, which peaked at $43.95 in July 2005, bottomed this summer at $21.46 on July 15. It has since snapped back and is getting a further lift today from Blake’s comments.
The shares were up $1.07, or 3.8%, to $29.14 just after 11 a.m. PDT.
The company last month projected that its sales would be down 5% this year because of weak consumer spending. It also forecast a 24% drop in operating earnings for the year.
