勞氏公司 (LOW) 2024 Q2 法說會逐字稿

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Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Lowe's Companies second-quarter 2024 earnings conference call. My name is Rob, and I'll be your operator for today's call. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. I'll now turn the call over to Kate Pearlman, Vice President of Investor Relations and Treasurer.

大家早安，歡迎參加勞氏公司 2024 年第二季財報電話會議。我叫羅布，我將擔任您今天通話的接線生。提醒一下，本次會議正在錄製中。我現在將把電話轉給投資者關係副總裁兼財務主管凱特·皮爾曼（Kate Pearlman）。

Thank you and good morning. Here with me today are Marvin Ellison, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer; Bill Boltz, our Executive Vice President, Merchandising; Joe Mcfarland our Executive Vice President, Stores and; Brandon Sink our Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer.

謝謝你，早安。今天與我在一起的有董事長兼執行長馬文‧艾里森 (Marvin Ellison)； Bill Boltz，我們的行銷執行副總裁； Joe Mcfarland 我們的商店執行副總裁；布蘭登·辛克（Brandon Sink）是我們的執行副總裁兼財務長。

I would like to remind you that our notice regarding forward-looking statements is included in our press release this morning, which can be found on Lowe's Investor Relations website. During this call, we will be making comments that are forward-looking, including our expectations for fiscal 2020 for actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied as a result of various risks, uncertainties and important factors, including those discussed in the Risk Factors, MD&A and other sections of our annual report on Form 10-K and our other SEC filings.

我想提醒您，我們有關前瞻性陳述的通知包含在今天早上的新聞稿中，您可以在勞氏投資者關係網站上找到該新聞稿。在本次電話會議中，我們將發表前瞻性評論，包括我們對2020 財年實際結果的預期可能與由於各種風險、不確定性和重要因素（包括風險中討論的因素）而明示或暗示的結果存在重大差異。

Additionally, we'll be discussing certain non-GAAP financial measures. A reconciliation of these items to US GAAP can be found on a quarterly earnings section of our Investor Relations website. Now I'll turn the call over to Marvin.

此外，我們也將討論某些非公認會計準則財務指標。這些項目與美國公認會計原則（US GAAP）的調節可以在我們投資者關係網站的季度收益部分找到。現在我將把電話轉給馬文。

Thank you, Kate, and good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. Second quarter sales were $23.6 billion with comparable sales down 5.1% from the same period last year. While we're pleased that we delivered positive comps improved no loan sales. We continue to manage through softness in DIY demand. Although this remains a challenging industry backdrop for the homeowner, I'm pleased with our team's ability to effectively manage the business.

謝謝凱特，大家早安，謝謝您加入我們。第二季銷售額為 236 億美元，可比銷售額較去年同期下降 5.1%。雖然我們很高興我們提供了積極的補償，但沒有貸款銷售得到改善。我們繼續透過 DIY 需求的疲軟來管理。儘管這對房主來說仍然是一個充滿挑戰的行業背景，但我對我們團隊有效管理業務的能力感到滿意。

This is reflected in our disciplined expense management across the company along with continual progress on our perpetual productivity improvement or PPI initiatives. These efforts helped us respond to the pullback in Iowa discretionary projects and unpredictable weather across the country to deliver better than expected flow through while improving the customer experience. Later in the call. Joe will provide more detail or improved customer service results in Q2.

這反映在我們整個公司嚴格的費用管理以及我​​們在生產力持續改進或 PPI 計劃方面的持續進展。這些努力幫助我們應對愛荷華州可自由支配計畫的縮減和全國各地不可預測的天氣，提供比預期更好的流量，同時改善客戶體驗。後來在通話中。喬將在第二季提供更多詳細資訊或改進的客戶服務結果。

We're also encouraged to see results from our ongoing investments in our Total Home strategy this quarter, allowing us to deliver mid single digit positive comps and Pro and 2.9% comparable sales growth on the bond.

我們也很高興看到本季對 Total Home 策略的持續投資所取得的成果，使我們能夠實現中個位數的正比較和 Pro 以及債券的 2.9% 的可比銷售成長。

This demonstrates the importance of these strategic investments and shows that our Total Home strategy is gaining traction. Even in this pressure that macro environment, our resilient small to medium Pro customers are responding to the way we've transformed our product and service offerings to meet their needs. Bill and Joe will provide more detail on our successful program initiatives later in the call.

這顯示了這些策略性投資的重要性，並表明我們的 Total Home 策略正在獲得關注。即使在這種宏觀環境的壓力下，我們富有彈性的中小型專業客戶仍在對我們改變產品和服務產品以滿足他們的需求的方式做出反應。比爾和喬將在稍後的電話會議中提供有關我們成功的計劃舉措的更多詳細資訊。

When it comes online sales, we delivered growth across all three business areas, driven by continued improvement in conversion rates as customers responded to our compelling offers and to our new expanded same-day delivery options that are now available on multiple platforms.

在線上銷售方面，我們在所有三個業務領域都實現了成長，這得益於客戶對我們極具吸引力的產品和現已在多個平台上提供的新擴展的當日送達選項做出的反應，轉化率不斷提高。

In Q2, we added Uber Eats each to our list of delivery partners, which also includes DoorDash ship an Instacart. In addition to our last about technology partner, one rule provides a fully integrated solution available on lowes.com and in store.

在第二季度，我們將 Uber Eats 都添加到了我們的送貨合作夥伴清單中，其中還包括 DoorDash 和 Instacart。除了我們最後一個關於技術合作夥伴的規則外，還有一條規則提供了在 lowes.com 和商店中提供的完全整合的解決方案。

As we continue to involve our omnichannel strategy, we've learned having multiple delivery platforms, extend our reach into both urban and suburban areas and helps us drive incremental sales with different types of customers, especially younger generations were more digitally savvy.

隨著我們繼續實施全通路策略，我們了解到擁有多個交付平台，將我們的業務範圍擴展到城市和郊區，並幫助我們推動不同類型客戶的增量銷售，尤其是年輕一代對數位技術更加了解。

We're also reaching a broader customer base and making a deeper connection with our new and existing customers through our marketing campaigns, featuring sports icons like Lionel Messi widely recognized as the best Soccer player in the world, we are very effectively lowers our partnership with Messi to gain exposure to our new DIY loyalty program, MyLowe’s Rewards.

我們還透過行銷活動涵蓋了更廣泛的客戶群，並與新舊客戶建立了更深入的聯繫，其中包括像萊昂內爾·梅西這樣被廣泛認為是世界上最好的足球運動員的體育偶像，我們非常有效地降低了與Messi 將獲得參與我們新的 DIY 忠誠度計劃 MyLowe’s Rewards 的機會。

Overall, we're very pleased with our MyLowe’s Rewards loyalty program was just large nationwide in March. And through this program, we've learned more about our customers' lifestyle and purchase, I think trends, which will allow us to curate meaningful offers for them now and in the future.

總體而言，我們對 3 月在全國範圍內開展的 MyLowe 獎勵忠誠度計劃感到非常滿意。透過這個計劃，我們更多地了解了客戶的生活方式和購買趨勢，我認為這將使我們能夠為他們現在和將來策劃有意義的優惠。

Now let me tell you about how we're leading the way with innovation and home improvement. Lowe's working with Apple to help customers visualize and designed a dream kitchens using Apple vision Pro. This past quarter, we piloted and in-store design experience for our customers in three test markets were with the help from a Lowe's associate customers could where the Apple vision Pro and use a Lowe's studio app to explore and customize hundreds of kitchen design in 3D products, fixtures and appliances all available at Lowe's.

現在讓我告訴您我們如何在創新和家居裝修方面處於領先地位。 Lowe's 與 Apple 合作，幫助客戶使用 Apple Vision Pro 視覺化和設計夢想廚房。上個季度，我們在 Lowe's 合作客戶的幫助下，在三個測試市場為客戶進行了試點和店內設計體驗，他們可以使用 Apple Vision Pro 並使用 Lowe's studio 應用程式探索和定制數百種 3D 廚房設計產品、固定裝置和電器均可在Lowe's 購買。

This is just one example of how we're leaning into innovation. While we're also working with leading platforms like in Nvidia, Open AI and Palantir to develop AI solutions for our customers and sources help us improve how we sell shop and how we work.

這只是我們如何致力於創新的一個例子。我們也與 Nvidia、Open AI 和 Palantir 等領先平台合作，為我們的客戶開發人工智慧解決方案，並幫助我們改進銷售方式和工作方式。

Before I close, let me give you an update on the trends we're seeing in the macro environment. At the beginning of the year, our full year outlook reflected our expectation that macro and consumer trends in 2024 would be similar to the back half in 2023.

在結束之前，讓我向您介紹一下我們在宏觀環境中看到的趨勢的最新情況。今年年初，我們的全年展望反映了我們對 2024 年宏觀和消費趨勢將與 2023 年下半年相似的預期。

That assessment has turned out to be accurate. And yet there's still remains a great deal of uncertainty, particularly around interest rates, rates and inflation. In terms of housing, specifically, we're seeing significant implications as a result of a lag effect.

事實證明，這項評估是準確的。然而，仍然存在很大的不確定性，特別是在利率、利率和通貨膨脹方面。具體而言，在住房方面，我們看到了滯後效應帶來的重大影響。

Simply put, people are moving nearly as often as they typically do because current mortgage rates are so much higher than our existing rate. And as a consequence, housing turnover is hovering near its lowest levels since the mid 1990s.

簡而言之，人們搬家的頻率幾乎與平時一樣，因為目前的抵押貸款利率比我們現有的利率高得多。因此，房屋成交量徘徊在 1990 年代中期以來的最低水平附近。

And I preface was spending on services, especially for the more affluent consumer, has persisted much longer than expected. That said, the three core drivers of our business remain strong. Home prices continue to appreciate just sustaining historically high levels of home equity disposable personal income is now growing faster than inflation, and the aging housing stock means people will need to make repairs and improvements in their homes.

我在前言中提到，服務支出，尤其是針對較富裕消費者的服務支出，持續時間比預期長得多。也就是說，我們業務的三個核心驅動力仍然強勁。房價持續升值，只是維持歷史高水準的房屋淨值可支配個人收入現在的成長速度快於通貨膨脹，而老化的房屋存量意味著人們需要對房屋進行維修和改善。

When you combine those factors, which trends like a large number of Lowe's forming households, baby boomers aging in place and people continuing to work from home, we remain optimistic about the medium to long-term outlook of the home improvement industry.

綜合考慮Lowe’s大量組建家庭、嬰兒潮一代就地老化以及人們繼續在家工作等因素，我們對家居裝修行業的中長期前景保持樂觀。

And in the meantime, our operating philosophy in this challenging home improvement, macro environment is very straightforward. We will continue to invest in technology and innovation will offer our customers, value and differentiation whenever and however they choose to shop, and we will be incredibly disciplined with our expense management.

同時，在這個充滿挑戰的家居裝潢宏觀環境中，我們的經營理念非常簡單。我們將繼續投資於技術和創新，為我們的客戶提供價值和差異化，無論他們何時何地選擇購物，我們將嚴格遵守我們的費用管理。

We will achieve this by improving our operational efficiency through our PR initiatives and making the right investments in our Total Home strategy. Although we are unable to call the date for the recovery in home improvement, we are confident there will be in a strong position to take share when the market begins to grow flat.

我們將透過公關計劃提高營運效率並對我們的整體家居策略進行正確的投資來實現這一目標。儘管我們無法確定家居裝修復甦的日期，但我們相信，當市場開始成長乏力時，我們將佔據有利地位，搶佔市場份額。

In closing, I want to take our frontline associates for their dedicated what we were first half of this year. I have personally visited all 15 geographic regions due to personally thank our wonderful associates for their hard work and provide me with invaluable insights into how we can continually enhance our customer experience.

最後，我想感謝我們的第一線員工今年上半年的奉獻精神。我親自訪問了所有 15 個地理區域，以親自感謝我們出色的員工的辛勤工作，並為我提供了關於如何不斷增強客戶體驗的寶貴見解。

Thank you again for joining us this morning. And with that, I will now turn the call over to Bill.

再次感謝您今天早上加入我們。現在，我將把電話轉給比爾。

Thanks, Marvin, and good morning, everyone. Despite continuing softness in DIY discretionary demand, we're pleased that we delivered positive online comps in mid single digit positive pro comps this quarter. We now have the right brands for Pros, the right inventory quantities in the right product assortments to meet the needs of this demanding customers.

謝謝馬文，大家早安。儘管 DIY 可自由支配需求持續疲軟，但我們很高興本季度我們以中等個位數的積極線上補償提供了積極的線上補償。現在，我們為專業人士提供了合適的品牌、合適的庫存數量和合適的產品種類，以滿足這些苛刻客戶的需求。

Our strong pro performance in this challenging macro environment means that our efforts to transform the Pro customer experience are working. Now turning to our results in building products where we delivered above-average comps in rough plumbing, electrical and millwork and positive comps in building materials, driven by continued growth in Pro across all building materials subdivisions.

我們在這個充滿挑戰的宏觀環境中的強勁專業表現意味著我們轉變專業客戶體驗的努力正在發揮作用。現在轉向我們在建築產品方面的成果，在所有建築材料細分領域的Pro 持續增長的推動下，我們在粗製管道、電氣和木製品方面提供了高於平均水平的競爭，並且在建築材料方面提供了積極的競爭。

Within rough plumbing. We also drove strong results in some hot weather categories like air circulation in HVAC, and we continue to deliver strong results in water heaters. Just one warm weather example. We recently rolled out Mr. Cool, mini split air conditioners in 1,200 stores.

在粗糙的管道內。我們也在一些炎熱天氣類別（例如暖通空調的空氣循環）中取得了強勁的業績，並且我們繼續在熱水器方面取得了強勁的業績。只是一個溫暖天氣的例子。我們最近在 1,200 家商店推出了 Mr. Cool 迷你分離式空調。

The ductless systems are known for their advanced technology, energy efficiency and ease of installation, which means our DIY customers can now install their own mini HVAC system without having to hire and professional installer.

無管道系統以其先進的技術、能源效率和易於安裝而聞名，這意味著我們的 DIY 客戶現在可以安裝自己的迷你 HVAC 系統，而無需僱用專業安裝人員。

Now let's shift gears to home decor. We continue to see persistent pressure in bigger ticket DIY discretionary projects in flooring and kitchen and bath, consistent with the trends that began in third quarter of 2023.

現在讓我們轉向家居裝飾。我們繼續看到地板、廚房和浴室等大件 DIY 自由支配項目持續面臨壓力，這與 2023 年第三季開始的趨勢一致。

And we continue to lead the industry and appliances, and we are pleased with our overall performance where we delivered above-average comps and double digit growth in pro sales. When you put it all together, we have the whole package for customer shopping for new appliances.

我們繼續引領行業和電器，我們對我們的整體業績感到滿意，我們實現了高於平均水平的比較和專業銷售的兩位數增長。當你把所有這些放在一起時，我們就為客戶購買新電器提供了整套服務。

We have the widest assortment at the leading brands. We have a simple and seamless shopping experience, both in-store and online. And we have a best in class fulfillment solution with next-day and two-day delivery options. Thanks to our multiyear invoice investment in our market delivery infrastructure. And we continue to bring the most innovative products to market like the loads exclusive high sense, convertible four door refrigerator, which has a fingerprint resistant finish and an extra storage drawer with different temperature settings that can be controlled over WiFi from your mobile phone.

我們擁有最廣泛的領導品牌品種。無論是在店內還是在網路上，我們都擁有簡單、無縫的購物體驗。我們擁有一流的履行解決方案，提供隔日送達和兩天送達選項。感謝我們對市場交付基礎設施的多年發票投資。我們繼續將最具創新性的產品推向市場，例如裝載獨特的高感可轉換四門冰箱，它具有防指紋表面和一個額外的儲物抽屜，具有不同的溫度設置，可以透過手機的WiFi 進行控制。

In paint, we are now partnering with Sherwin-Williams to offer customers free same-day delivery nationwide since painting as the number one home improvement project, we're making it easy and convenient for customers to order paint and paint supplies online and get it all delivered quickly right to their door.

在油漆方面，我們現在與宣偉合作，為客戶提供全國範圍內的免費當日送貨服務，因為油漆是第一大家居裝修項目，我們讓客戶可以輕鬆方便地在線訂購油漆和油漆用品並獲得它所有的東西很快就送到家門口。

This delivery option is just another added convenience, especially if you happened to run short or out of supplies in the middle of a painting project. Now let's talk about Hardlines were unfavorable weather pressured traditional spring seasonal categories like lawn and garden and seasonal and outdoor living.

這種交付選項只是另一個額外的便利，特別是如果您在塗裝項目中碰巧出現供應短缺或缺貨的情況。現在讓我們來談談硬派是不利的天氣壓力傳統的春季季節性類別，如草坪和花園以及季節性和戶外生活。

Given our DIY customer mix, sales pressure in these two DIY dominant categories greatly impacted overall comp sales for the quarter in outdoor power equipment. The addition of core now gives us the strongest lineup in the industry, along with John Deere, Craftsman, Husqvarna, Kobalt and Skill, no one can beat it in tools. We're expanding our collection of private branded Kobalt tools with a 24 volt painting sprayer and finish Naylor.

鑑於我們的 DIY 客戶結構，這兩個 DIY 主導類別的銷售壓力極大地影響了本季戶外動力設備的整體銷售。 core的加入現在讓我們擁有了行業最強的陣容，與約翰迪爾、Craftsman、Husqvarna、Kobalt和Skill一起，在工具方面無人能敵。我們正在擴大我們的自有品牌 Kobalt 工具系列，包括 24 伏特油漆噴霧器和飾面 Naylor。

And with our introduction of client rules and their new connect system, which is an impact rated system of sockets, drivers and ratchets that are compatible with both hand tools and power tools. This system is proprietary decline.

隨著我們引入客戶規則和他們的新連接系統，這是一個由插座、驅動器和棘輪組成的衝擊額定係統，與手動工具和電動工具相容。這個系統是專有的下降。

The number one brand for electricians and HVAC professionals and Connect is also exclusive to Lowe's in the home center channel, where we now have the largest assortment of client tools in home improvement retail.

Connect 是電工和暖通空調專業人士的第一品牌，也是 Lowe's 在家居中心通路的獨家品牌，我們現在在該通路擁有家居裝修零售領域最齊全的客戶端工具。

During the quarter, we were also pleased with the success of our craftsmen day's events, where we highlighted Craftsman products from multiple merchandising divisions with more than 100 products featured both in-store and online. As we look ahead to Q3 in the fall season, we have a strong product lineup ready for the fall, starting with following.

在本季度，我們也對工匠日活動的成功感到高興，在活動中，我們重點介紹了來自多個銷售部門的工匠產品，並在店內和網上展示了 100 多種產品。當我們展望秋季第三季時，我們為秋季準備了強大的產品陣容，首先是以下產品。

It's bigger than ever before with everything from new and Medtronic's to inflatables, along with fall cleaning and fall harvest. And with the core that can last the entire fall season, it is already available online and in-store.

它比以往任何時候都更大，從新的、美敦力的到充氣的，還有秋季清潔和秋季收穫。這款核心產品可以持續整個秋季，目前已在線上和實體店發售。

Shifting gears, we continued to deliver on our perpetual productivity improvement for pur PPI intitiatives , our market team is rebranding our retail media network program to a simpler platform where we help our brand partners meet a wide range of marketing objectives from performance on shelf and new product launches to seasonal promotions and multi-products sales were also pleased with the progress we've made working with our suppliers to take out costs that we absorbed over the last few years.

我們不斷轉變策略，繼續為PPI 計劃提供永久的生產力改進，我們的市場團隊正在將我們的零售媒體網絡計劃重塑為一個更簡單的平台，幫助我們的品牌合作夥伴實現從貨架表現到新產品的廣泛行銷目標。

We continue to work together with our suppliers to claw back these costs while also looking to reinvest into our marketing and merchandising strategies to drive traffic and sales. As I wrap up, I want to once again thank our supplier partners and our merchants for their partnership and hard work and bringing our customers the best brands, innovative products and compelling offers that offer value and new solutions for our customers' home improvement needs.

我們繼續與供應商合作，收回這些成本，同時尋求對我們的行銷和銷售策略進行再投資，以推動流量和銷售。最後，我想再次感謝我們的供應商合作夥伴和商家的合作和辛勤工作，為我們的客戶帶來最好的品牌、創新產品和引人注目的優惠，為客戶的家居裝修需求提供價值和新的解決方案。

Thank you. And now I'll turn the call over to Joe.

謝謝。現在我將把電話轉給喬。

Thanks, Bill, and good morning, everyone. I'd like to start by recognizing our frontline associates for their dedication to serving our customers is reflected in continued improvement in our customer satisfaction scores over last year.

謝謝比爾，大家早安。首先，我想表彰我們的第一線員工，他們為客戶服務的奉獻精神體現在我們的客戶滿意度得分比去年持續提高。

And while we continue to elevate the customer experience, we also managed staffing well in a dynamic environment and achieve greater payroll productivity. We achieved this improvement in customer service and productivity by continuing to ship associate time from non-customer facing areas to focus on selling and assisting customers, which leads me to a question we often hear from our investors, namely through our perpetual productivity improvement or PPI initiatives, negatively impact our customer experience.

在我們不斷提升客戶體驗的同時，我們也在動態環境中很好地管理了人員配置，並實現了更高的薪資生產力。我們透過繼續將員工時間從非面向客戶的區域轉移到專注於銷售和協助客戶來實現客戶服務和生產力的提高，這讓我想到了我們經常從投資者那裡聽到的一個問題，即透過我們的永久性生產力改善或PPI舉措，會對我們的客戶體驗產生負面影響。

Let me address that head on. We found that the opposite is true for a number of years now, we've been working smarter with tech-enabled solutions that make our associates more productive while enhancing customer service. At the same time, the new in-store mode on our mobile app is a great example when customers into our store base in April, in-store mode using lowes.com app on their phone, providing them with the detailed product and location information to help them navigate the store with ease.

讓我來解決這個問題。我們發現多年來情況恰恰相反，我們一直在透過技術支援的解決方案更聰明地工作，使我們的員工提高工作效率，同時增強客戶服務。同時，我們行動應用程式上的新店內模式就是一個很好的例子，當顧客在四月份進入我們的商店基地時，店內模式使用手機上的lowes.com 應用程序，為他們提供詳細的產品和位置資訊幫助他們輕鬆瀏覽商店。

In addition to being a tremendous customer resourced in-store mode also helps free up associates so they can spend more time selling and focusing on customers who need help.

店內模式除了擁有龐大的客戶資源之外，還有助於解放員工，使他們能夠花更多的時間進行銷售並專注於需要幫助的客戶。

And we're already working on the next innovations to the in-store mode to further streamline the shopping experience. Our PPI initiatives are also enabling us to reduce returns, which are now at historic lows for our company. There are a number of factors driving these results beginning with returns desk associates are using our modern omnichannel system, which makes the process as easy as a quick scan with the system immediately accounting for return policies.

我們已經在致力於店內模式的下一步創新，以進一步簡化購物體驗。我們的 PPI 舉措也使我們能夠減少回報，目前我們公司的回報處於歷史低點。推動這些結果的因素有很多，首先是退貨台員工正在使用我們現代的全通路系統，這使得整個過程變得非常簡單，只需快速掃描即可，系統會立即考慮退貨政策。

Second, we're collecting more precise information on one item was returned, so we can work together with our vendors to address any issues and prevent returns from happening in the first place. Third, we've identified key inflection points in our supply chain to reduce damages on more fragile items like appliances to better ensure that they arrive in pristine condition, therefore, reducing returns.

其次，我們正在收集有關退貨的更準確的信息，以便我們可以與供應商合作解決任何問題並從一開始就防止退貨發生。第三，我們確定了供應鏈中的關鍵拐點，以減少電器等易碎物品的損壞，並更好地確保它們到達時處於原始狀態，從而減少退貨。

Even though we've already made substantial progress on our productivity journey, our team has already piloting some of the next round of innovations on our PPI roadmap. I'm looking forward to sharing more details about these initiatives at our Analyst and Investor Conference in December.

儘管我們已經在生產力之旅上取得了實質進展，但我們的團隊已經在 PPI 路線圖上試點了下一輪的一些創新。我期待在 12 月的分析師和投資者會議上分享有關這些舉措的更多細節。

Shifting gears now to Pro, where we continue to gain momentum with our core small to midsize pro customer as we delivered mid-single digit positive pro comps this quarter.

現在轉向專業版，我們繼續在核心中小型專業客戶中獲得動力，因為我們本季交付了中個位數的正專業補償。

The recent investments we've made in Jobsite delivery and high-velocity Pro skews are paying dividends, making easier for us to fulfill larger orders and quickly replenish inventory within our store and we're delivering outsized growth in pro online sales as pros appreciate the enhanced online shopping experience that we've created specifically for them.

我們最近在工作現場交付和高速專業偏差方面進行的投資正在帶來紅利，使我們更容易完成更大的訂單并快速補充商店內的庫存，並且隨著專業人士的讚賞，我們正在實現專業在線銷售的大幅增長我們專門為他們打造了增強的線上購物體驗。

Looking ahead, we were pleased to hear from pros in our recent survey that their backlogs remain healthy and consistent with last year. And what's also encouraging is that 75% of pros are confident in landing new business. Our EVP of Pro and Home Services Quonta Vance will discuss the next phase of our pro growth strategy at the December Analyst Investor Conference.

展望未來，我們很高興在最近的調查中聽到專業人士表示，他們的積壓訂單保持健康且與去年一致。同樣令人鼓舞的是，75% 的專業人士對開拓新業務充滿信心。我們的專業和家庭服務執行副總裁 Quonta Vance 將在 12 月的分析師投資者會議上討論我們下一階段的專業成長策略。

Before I wrap up, I want to thank our associates who contributed to our disaster relief efforts to help customers recover from storms, including hurricanes, [Burrow] and Debbie. Those command center merchandising teams and supply chain teams went into action to pre-stage merchandise at key locations to be able to quickly respond to customers' needs, but before and after the storms.

在結束之前，我要感謝我們的同事，他們為我們的救災工作做出了貢獻，幫助客戶從颶風、[Burrow] 和 Debbie 等風暴中恢復過來。這些指揮中心銷售團隊和供應鏈團隊在暴風雨之前和之後採取行動，在關鍵地點預先安排商品，以便能夠快速回應客戶的需求。

I'd like to extend my appreciation to all of our associates for their tireless efforts to serve our communities in their time of need.

我謹向我們所有的員工表示感謝，感謝他們在需要時為我們的社區所做的不懈努力。

And now let me turn it over to Brandon.

現在讓我把它交給布蘭登。

Thank you, Joe, and good morning, everyone. Beginning with our Q2 results, we generated GAAP diluted earnings per share of $4.17. In the quarter, we recognized a pre-tax gain of $43 million on deferred consideration associated with the 2022 sale of our Canadian retail business.

謝謝你，喬，大家早安。從第二季業績開始，我們的 GAAP 攤薄每股收益為 4.17 美元。在本季度，我們因與 2022 年出售加拿大零售業務相關的遞延對價而確認了 4,300 萬美元的稅前收益。

Excluding this benefit, we delivered adjusted diluted earnings per share of $4.10. My comments from this point forward will include certain non-GAAP comparisons that excluded this benefit where applicable second-quarter sales were $23.6 billion with comparable sales down by 5.1%. Comp sales were pressured by continued softness in DIY, bigger ticket projects, in line with our expectations.

不計此收益，我們的調整後攤薄每股收益為 4.10 美元。我今後的評論將包括某些非 GAAP 比較，其中排除了這一收益，其中適用的第二季銷售額為 236 億美元，可比銷售額下降了 5.1%。與我們的預期一致，由於 DIY 和大型專案的持續疲軟，競爭銷售受到壓力。

Also unfavorable weather pressured sales in seasonal categories. Comparable average ticket was up 0.8%, helped by strength in Pro heavy categories as well as less average selling price pressure and appliances as we begin to cycle the normalization of promotions within the category, comparable transactions declined 5.9% with pressure from the Lowe project spend as well as lower seasonal transactions, partly offset by growth in pro transactions.

不利的天氣也給季節性類別的銷售帶來壓力。可比平均票價上漲了0.8%，這得益於專業重型類別的強勢以及平均售價壓力和電器的減輕，因為我們開始循環該類別內的促銷正常化，可比交易量下降了5.9%，原因是來自Lowe 項目支出的壓力以及季節性交易的減少，但部分被專業交易的成長所抵消。

Our monthly comps were down 6.4% in May, 4.1% in June and 4.9% in July. Colder and wetter weather in May was quickly followed by intensity across much of the country in June and July, with both weather patterns pressuring outdoor spring activity.

我們的月度比較在 5 月下降了 6.4%，在 6 月下降了 4.1%，在 7 月下降了 4.9%。繼五月寒冷潮濕的天氣之後，六月和七月全國大部分地區的天氣也變得更加寒冷和潮濕，這兩種天氣模式都給春季戶外活動帶來了壓力。

Gross margin was 33.5% in the second quarter, down 19 basis points from last year due to continuing supply chain investments, partly offset by lower transportation costs and ongoing PPI initiatives. Adjusted SG&A of 17.3% of sales delevered 87 basis points due to sales deleverage as well as the cycling of a favorable legal settlement.

由於持續的供應鏈投資，第二季度毛利率為 33.5%，較去年下降 19 個基點，但運輸成本下降和持續的 PPI 措施部分抵消了毛利率。由於銷售去槓桿化以及有利的法律​​和解的循環，調整後的銷售管理費用佔銷售額的 17.3%，降低了 87 個基點。

These impacts were partially offset by continued enterprise-wide PPI efforts and our quick pivot to manage expenses in line with sales that were adversely impacted. Adjusted operating margin rate of 14.4% declined 114 basis points in the adjusted effective tax rate we have 24.2% was in line with prior year.

這些影響被整個企業範圍內持續的 PPI 努力以及我們根據受到不利影響的銷售情況快速調整支出來管理費用所部分抵消。調整後的營業利潤率為 14.4%，下降了 114 個基點，調整後的有效稅率為 24.2%，與去年持平。

Inventory ended the quarter at $16.8 billion, down $581 million compared to Q2 of last year as we continue to align inventory levels with demand while also investing in High Velocity Pro items.

本季末庫存為 168 億美元，比去年第二季減少 5.81 億美元，因為我們繼續根據需求調整庫存水平，同時也投資 High Velocity Pro 商品。

Turning now to capital allocation. During the quarter, we generated $2.7 billion in free cash flow. We repurchased 4.4 million shares for $1 billion and paid $629 million in dividends at $1.10 per share. We also announced a 5% increase to $1.15 per share for the dividend paid on August 7. Capital expenditures totaled $426 million as we continue to invest in modernizing our technology infrastructure and our strategic growth priorities.

現在轉向資本配置。本季度，我們產生了 27 億美元的自由現金流。我們以 10 億美元回購了 440 萬股股票，並以每股 1.10 美元的價格支付了 6.29 億美元的股息。我們也宣布 8 月 7 日支付的股息增加 5%，達到每股 1.15 美元。

Adjusted debt to EBITDA finished the quarter at 3.03 times, and we delivered a return on invested capital above 30%. Now turning to our financial outlook. Sales in the first half of the year performed largely in line with our expectations. But as Marvin mentioned, the home-improvement backdrop remains challenging and consumer sentiment remains weak.

本季調整後負債與 EBITDA 比率為 3.03 倍，我們的投資資本報酬率超過 30%。現在轉向我們的財務前景。上半年的銷售表現基本上符合我們的預期。但正如馬文所提到的，家居裝修背景仍然充滿挑戰，消費者信心仍然疲軟。

Based on these factors, we are updating our full year 2024 outlook. We are now at sales in the range of $82.7 billion to $83.2 billion, with comparable sales in a range of down 3.5% to down 4%. We also now expect full year adjusted operating margin in a range of 12.4% to 12.5% as we continue to tightly manage expenses while also investing in our strategic priorities.

基於這些因素，我們正在更新 2024 年全年展望。我們目前的銷售額在 827 億美元至 832 億美元之間，可比銷售額下降了 3.5% 至 4%。我們現在也預期全年調整後營業利潤率將在 12.4% 至 12.5% 之間，因為我們將繼續嚴格管理開支，同時也投資於我們的策略重點。

Additionally, we expect full year net interest expense of approximately $1.4 billion and to repay a $450 million bond maturity in September. We also expect capital expenditures of approximately $2 billion and an adjusted effective income tax rate of approximately 24.5%. This results in an updated outlook for adjusted diluted earnings per share of approximately $11.70 to $11.90.

此外，我們預計全年淨利息支出約為 14 億美元，並償還 9 月到期的 4.5 億美元債券。我們也預期資本支出約為 20 億美元，調整後的有效所得稅率約為 24.5%。這導致調整後稀釋每股收益的最新前景約為 11.70 美元至 11.90 美元。

Now to assist you with your modeling here a few points to consider for the back half of the year, we are expecting third and fourth quarter comp sales to be roughly 200 basis points better than our second quarter results. Given the easier prior year comparators.

現在，為了幫助您進行建模，請考慮今年下半年的幾個要點，我們預計第三季和第四季的比較銷售額將比第二季的業績高出約 200 個基點。考慮到更容易的前一年比較。

And we also expect operating margin rate for the second half to be roughly in line with prior year with Q3 approximately 70 basis points below prior year rate in Q4 to be approximately 50 basis points above prior year rate.

我們也預期下半年的營業利潤率將與去年同期大致持平，其中第三季比去年同期低約 70 個基點，第四季將比去年同期高約 50 個基點。

The quarterly differences are driven by the timing of merchandising, PPI initiatives as we turn to our inventory as well as comparisons to prior year incentive compensation expense and year end discretionary bonuses.

季度差異是由商品銷售時間、我們轉向庫存時的 PPI 計劃以及與上一年激勵薪酬費用和年終酌情獎金的比較造成的。

And finally, we are reconfirming our capital allocation priorities. We will continue to invest in the business to drive long-term growth while maintaining a 35% targeted dividend pay-out ratio and then use the remaining cash flows to fund share repurchases.

最後，我們正在重新確認我們的資本配置優先事項。我們將繼續投資該業務以推動長期成長，同時維持35%的目標股息支付率，然後利用剩餘現金流為股票回購提供資金。

This disciplined approach to capital allocation, combined with improved operating performance, almost tripled our ROIC over the past five years. In closing, we are confident in our ability to execute at a high level as we navigate these near term market uncertainties while making the right investments in our Total Home strategy, all while continuing to drive sustainable shareholder value. And with that, we will open it up for your questions.

這種嚴格的資本配置方法，加上經營績效的改善，在過去五年中使我們的投資資本回報率幾乎增加了兩倍。最後，我們對自己高水準執行的能力充滿信心，因為我們應對這些近期市場的不確定性，同時對我們的 Total Home 策略進行正確的投資，同時繼續推動可持續的股東價值。至此，我們將開放回答您的問題。

Thank you, we are now ready for questions.

謝謝，我們現在準備好提問了。

(Operator Instructions)

（操作員說明）

Simeon Gutman, Morgan Stanley.

西蒙古特曼，摩根士丹利。

Good morning, everyone. I have one question about top line and then second about margin. For the first question on the spread between DIY and Pro. I don't think we have that for every quarter, but call it 15 points spread and looks like the higher number in a long time, but that's hair and it would imply you're taking share for all, but it looks like you're losing some and DIY affair. And then if you look across geographies, how does that spread very hesitant a function of the Pro spread? Is it a function of the DIY and then what's causing that spread to vary if so?

大家早安。我有一個關於頂線的問題，然後是關於利潤的第二個問題。關於第一個問題關於DIY和Pro之間的價差。我不認為我們每個季度都有這樣的分差，但稱之為15 分分差，看起來是很長一段時間以來更高的數字，但那是頭髮，這意味著你正在分享所有人的份額，但看起來你'正在失去一些和DIY的關係。然後，如果你看看各個地區，你會發現，Pro 傳播的函數是如何傳播的？這是 DIY 的功能嗎？

So thanks. This is Marvin, I'll take the first part of the data, I think was difficult for us to determine and home improvement is where you actually losing or gaining share specifically in the categories of DIY and Pro. I get the foundation of your question, but one thing we can confirm for sure or is that our Pro business is growing.

所以謝謝。這是馬文，我將獲取數據的第一部分，我認為我們很難確定家居裝修是您實際上失去或獲得份額的地方，特別是在 DIY 和專業類別中。我明白了你問題的基礎，但我們可以肯定的一件事是我們的專業業務正在成長。

So we do believe that we're taking share just based on the maturation of the strategic initiatives that you heard from me, Joe and Bill, as we look at the DIY, what the best way for me to explain and answer the question is our sales are much more concentrated in bigger ticket DIY, why discretionary purchases?

因此，我們確實相信，我們正在根據您從我、喬和比爾那裡聽到的戰略舉措的成熟程度來分享份額，當我們考慮 DIY 時，我解釋和回答這個問題的最佳方式是我們的銷售更多集中在大件DIY，為什麼要隨意購買？

And when you look at big ticket discretionary projects in the second quarter, the DIY demand was soft as in those categories. And in those projects, as you'd imagine, we're still roughly approximately 75% Deere was really pull back in these big ticket discretionary category is really more of a disproportionate impact to us.

當你觀察第二季的大宗可自由支配專案時，你會發現 DIY 需求與這些類別一樣疲軟。在這些項目中，正如你想像的那樣，我們仍然有大約 75% 的迪爾在這些大件可自由支配類別中真正被撤回，這對我們來說確實是一個不成比例的影響。

So I don't know that we're losing share. And DIY as much as the dynamic of these big discretionary project in the quarter affected us. And that's really the way we're looking at it. Now here's the good news. The good news is we feel great about our assortment from a merchandising perspective.

所以我不知道我們正在失去份額。 DIY 和本季這些大型可自由支配專案的動態一樣影響了我們。這確實是我們看待問題的方式。現在有好消息。好消息是，從銷售的角度來看，我們對我們的產品系列感覺很好。

We feel great about our pricing, our execution, our marketing, and we believe this is just a macro issue that we're dealing with relative to DIY, what big ticket discretionary. So when we look at Q2, even though it was a challenging economic environment, but we feel great that we could grow mid single digit positive comps in Pro, we could deliver almost 3% growth online, and we're still managing through macro headwinds would be Iowa discretionary spend.

我們對我們的定價、我們的執行、我們的行銷感覺很好，我們相信這只是我們正在處理的一個宏觀問題，相對於 DIY，這是多麼大的自由裁量權。因此，當我們看到第二季度時，儘管這是一個充滿挑戰的經濟環境，但我們感覺很好，我們可以在Pro 中實現中個位數的正值增長，我們可以實現近3% 的在線成長，而且我們仍在應對宏觀逆風將是愛荷華州的可自由支配支出。

So we believe that when the DIY what market in Flex, as some pointed in the future, we're in a perfect position to take overall market share and home improvement because of the strength we're seeing and Pro and online.

因此，我們相信，當 Flex 的 DIY 市場出現時，正如一些人在未來指出的那樣，由於我們看到的 Pro 和 Online 的實力，我們處於佔據整體市場份額和家庭裝修的完美位置。

So that our lead brand and take it to take the second part of i.--

這樣我們的主導品牌就可以拿下i的第二部了——

Are you assuming in your question on geographic differences, really pretty consistent. Marvin mentioned the growth in pro that's driven by both transactions and ticket. But when we look across our geographic divisions, very consistent performance and taken share rig regionally consistently there.

您在關於地理差異的問題中是否假設確實非常一致。馬文提到了專業人士的成長是由交易和門票共同推動的。但當我們縱觀我們的地理部門時，我們發現表現非常一致，並且在區域上一致地共享鑽孔機。

And then on the DIY side, again, to really no notable geographic differences outside of the hurricane impact that we saw around the July timeframe with hurricane barrel coming to the Houston zone geography. But other than that, really consistent.

然後在 DIY 方面，除了我們在 7 月左右看到的颶風影響之外，實際上沒有明顯的地理差異，颶風桶來到了休士頓地區的地理區域。但除此之外，確實一致。

Okay. And then my follow up on margin. It looks like in the second half, the conversion of the relationship between the comp and the margin, they looks a little weaker than maybe the first half. It doesn't look terrible given the comp, but it looks a little weaker.

好的。然後是我對保證金的跟進。看起來下半場，從比較和利潤之間關係的轉換來看，他們看起來比上半場弱一些。考慮到對比，它看起來並不可怕，但看起來有點弱。

So low doing differently, how you're managing your business, how you're making investments or is it simply a function of those things brand? And you mentioned some of the lap of incentive comp. I think there was one other thing. So is it internal or external?

如此低的做法不同，你如何管理你的業務，你如何進行投資，或者這只是這些品牌的功能？你提到了一些激勵補償的圈數。我認為還有另一件事。那麼它是內部的還是外部的呢？

Simeon, it's really the latter. The updated full year operating margin outlook is very consistent and look at it annually with our rule of thumb, 14 basis points of contraction on the downside for every point of comp decline. And as you mentioned, second half quarterly differences are driven mainly by the timing of the merch PPI initiatives as we take and through the call backs.

西蒙，確實是後者。更新後的全年營業利潤率前景非常一致，並且根據我們的經驗法則每年都會進行審視，每下降一個百分點，就會下降 14 個基點。正如您所提到的，下半年的季度差異主要是由我們採取的商品 PPI 舉措的時間安排以及回調造成的。

then what we're cycling over as it relates to prior year incentive compensation, we called out last year, $140 million of frontline bonuses that we paid in Q4. So it's really a function of those two things. Gross margins for the year. As we've said consistently, we expect roughly flat for the full year, and that's what's embedded in the operating margin outlook.

然後我們循環討論與上一年激勵薪酬相關的內容，我們去年聲稱，我們在第四季度支付了 1.4 億美元的一線獎金。所以它實際上是這兩件事的函數。本年毛利率。正如我們一直所說的那樣，我們預計全年將大致持平，這就是營業利潤率前景中所包含的內容。

Perfect. Thanks. Good luck.

完美的。謝謝。祝你好運。

Thank you.

謝謝。

Steve Zaccone, Citi.

史蒂夫扎科內，花旗銀行。

Thanks. Good morning. Thanks very much for taking my question. I wanted to follow-up on just understanding the guidance kind of swapping. It seems like the propane has kind of outperforming expectations since you had a dig a little deeper into the DIY side of the business and a partner, some of the categories on home decor and hard lines, what's really the biggest change to our outlook?

謝謝。早安.非常感謝您提出我的問題。我想跟進了解交換的指導類型。自從您深入了解了業務和合作夥伴的 DIY 方面、家居裝飾和硬線的一些類別後，丙烷的表現似乎超出了預期，我們的前景真正最大的變化是什麼？

And given the fact that sales have been coming in all the weaker than expected for longer than that, tempering your view on a potential recovery and DIY demand?

考慮到所有銷售都低於預期的情況持續了更長的時間，您對潛在復甦和 DIY 需求的看法是否有所緩和？

So Steve, and thank you for the question. I'll take the first part of it at look, I think for us when we think about our guidance change for the year, it really comes down to just being prudent and being cautious based on the macro environment and the overall customer sentiment, specifically around big ticket DIY discretionary spend.

史蒂夫，謝謝你的提問。我會看第一部分，我認為對我們來說，當我們考慮今年的指導變化時，這實際上取決於宏觀環境和整體客戶情緒的謹慎和謹慎，特別是周邊大件DIY可自由支配的花費。

We were all aware that interest rates and inflation. And because of that, the DIY customer is just on the sidelines, waiting for some form of an inflection to take place. So we can't call when that's going to happen.

我們都知道利率和通貨膨脹。正因為如此，DIY 客戶只是在一旁觀望，等待某種形式的改變發生。所以我們無法在這種情況發生時打電話。

But we felt based on what we saw in the second quarter, that it was prudent just to take a cautious approach to our guidance for the second half. And really that's what we decided to do ala brand. And you take the rest of your question Brandon.

但根據我們在第二季度看到的情況，我們認為對下半年的指導採取謹慎態度是明智的。事實上，這就是我們決定做 ala 品牌的事。布蘭登，你回答剩下的問題。

Just a little more context on the guide, as we mentioned in the prepared remarks, first half really largely in line with our expectations. When you exclude the weather impact ex that we experienced on as we looked into the second half, just as Marwin said, we still continue to see a very cautious consumer home improvement backdrop that remains challenged and for those reasons, we decided to make an adjustment to the guide on it does capture ongoing both DIY and Pro trends.

正如我們在準備好的評論中提到的，僅提供有關指南的更多背景信息，上半年確實在很大程度上符合我們的預期。當你排除我們在下半年經歷的天氣影響時，正如馬文所說，我們仍然看到非常謹慎的消費者家居裝修背景仍然面臨挑戰，因此，我們決定做出調整它的指南確實捕捉到了當前的DIY和專業趨勢。

And we're continuing to manage through the DIY while challenges in the big ticket discretionary. But we are still seeing strength, especially in the small to medium Pro.

我們將繼續透過 DIY 進行管理，同時應對大額自由裁量權的挑戰。但我們仍然看到了實力，尤其是在中小型 Pro 中。

And that's reflected just as a reminder, we're cycling a pretty big beyond what pull back, which started in Q3 of last year. Again as it relates to the big ticket discretionary. So the break down our as it relates to comp, we are expecting just like we've seen here in the first half, roughly flat average ticket in the second half as the Pro growth is offsetting some appliance pricing pressure that we're seeing.

這只是提醒我們，我們的循環速度遠遠超出了去年第三季開始的回檔。再次，因為它涉及大額可自由裁量權。因此，與比較相關的細分，我們預計就像我們在上半年看到的那樣，下半年的平均票價大致持平，因為 Pro 的成長正在抵消我們所看到的一些家電定價壓力。

And then we expect to see the transactions is the offset. That's where the pressure or is that we continue to expect that to be challenged as homeowners less engaged with the home improvement activity relates to second half guide.

然後我們期望看到的交易是偏移量。這就是壓力或我們繼續預計會受到挑戰的地方，因為房主較少參與與下半年指南相關的家居裝修活動。

Helpful. Thanks for that extra color. A brief follow-up just on pricing. There has been focused on pricing and the rest of our promotions impacting the industry. If demand stays weak, you actually saw ticket growth in the quarter, but you see that as a risk at all, just pricing and promotions kind of trickling into the industry if demand stays weak?

有幫助。謝謝你的額外顏色。關於定價的簡短跟進。我們的重點是定價和影響行業的其他促銷活動。如果需求持續疲軟，您實際上會看到本季門票成長，但您認為這完全是一種風險，如果需求持續疲軟，只是定價和促銷活動會滲透到該行業？

Yes, Stephen, this is Bill. So we actually see are the promotional activity remaining relatively stable when you get around certain events, Memorial Day, July, fourth, et cetera. You've got offers that are out there that are seasonally relevant. And we tried to mean you'll make sure that we're out there, meat and the consumer at that time as well.

是的，史蒂芬，這是比爾。因此，我們實際上看到，當您繞過某些事件（陣亡將士紀念日、七月、四號等）時，促銷活動仍然相對穩定。您可以獲得與季節性相關的優惠。我們試圖讓你們確保我們當時也在場，包括肉類和消費者。

And so when you look at Q3, we've got Labor Day in front of us. So we're going to be out there, making sure that we've got seasonally relevant offers that are out there for that time as we shift gears into the fall season, but from a from a promotional activity were relatively stable.

因此，當您查看第三季度時，我們已經迎來了勞動節。因此，我們將在那裡，確保當我們進入秋季時，我們會提供與季節性相關的優惠，但從促銷活動來看，這些優惠相對穩定。

And we're seeing on the US client side that we're back to more of a normal activity as it relates to how the appliance industry is going to market. So nothing really out of the demand.

我們在美國客戶方面看到，我們已經回到了更多的正常活動，因為這關係到家電行業的行銷方式。所以沒有什麼真正脫離需求的。

And this is Brandon. I would just reinforce the ticket increases, not a function of pricing so much as it's just the strength that we're seeing in the Pro business, which is lifting ticket. And then as build and the cycling of the promo environment and appliances, broadly speaking, as it relates to pricing environment, where we largely stable here over the last couple of years, there's always pockets of activity that we see that the tickets been we are in the pricing environment has been largely consistent since 2022.

這是布蘭登。我只是強調門票的增加，與其說是定價的函數，不如說它只是我們在專業業務中看到的力量，即提高門票。然後，隨著促銷環境和設備的構建和循環，從廣義上講，由於它與定價環境相關，過去幾年我們在這裡基本上穩定，總是有一些活動，我們看到門票是我們的自2022年以來，定價環境基本上保持一致。

And the industry continues to be discipline and rational. So for those reasons, we expect to take it to continue to hold as we look across the second half of the year.

該行業仍然保持紀律和理性。因此，基於這些原因，我們預計下半年趨勢將繼續保持不變。

Okay. Thanks for the detail. Best of luck in the second half.

好的。謝謝你的詳細資料。祝下半場好運。

Thanks, Steph.

謝謝，史蒂芬。

Christopher Horvers, JP Morgan.

克里斯多福‧霍弗斯，摩根大通。

Thanks and good morning. So first, a clarification to confirm you expect third quarter and fourth quarter comps to be that basically the same or are sequentially improving over the year? Relayed related to that, how much how much do you think whether actually was a headwind to comp in the second quarter? And any comment on where you are turning quarter to date relative to the updated expectations?

謝謝，早安。首先，需要澄清一下，以確認您預計第三季和第四季的業績基本上相同或在一年中連續改善？與此相關的是，您認為第二季的業績實際上有多少阻力？對於您相對於更新後的預期的季度迄今的進展有何評論？

So Chris, first question, the comps are relatively evenly split. When we look at Q3 and Q4 as a real, what's embedded in the guide. And then the question on weather impact and in particular as it impacted our DIY seasonal business. So we did see unfavorable weather in Q2 at pressured sales, cold and well wet weather in May, followed by the intensity that we saw in June and July.

克里斯，第一個問題，比賽的分配相對均勻。當我們真實地看待 Q3 和 Q4 時，指南中嵌入了哪些內容。然後是關於天氣影響的問題，特別是它對我們 DIY 季節性業務的影響。因此，我們確實在第二季度看到了不利的天氣，銷售受到壓力，五月天氣寒冷且潮濕，隨後是六月和七月的強度。

I just as a reminder, we are cycling over a strong seasonal performance last year Q2, we saw that especially in live goods and smaller outdoor projects and the outside of just seasonal. The intense weather also impacted other outdoor, call it now on seasonal projects like exterior paints and decking.

我只是提醒一下，去年第二季度我們的季節性表現強勁，我們看到這一點尤其是在現場商品和小型戶外項目以及季節性之外。惡劣的天氣也影響了其他戶外項目，現在稱之為季節性項目，如外牆塗料和裝飾。

And then the last thing I'll call out, we did see pressure in big ticket discretionary seasonal categories like patio and grills. But that was largely expected is we've been managing those seasonal buys down to more recent trends that we've seen. So that was the pressure that was mainly of where we saw the DC operation and comps from as we move from June to July.

最後我要指出的是，我們確實看到了庭院和燒烤等大宗可自由支配的季節性類別的壓力。但這在很大程度上是預料之中的，因為我們一直在管理這些季節性購買，以適應我們所看到的最新趨勢。因此，從 6 月到 7 月，這就是我們看到 DC 運作和比較的主要壓力。

And then I would say as it relates to your question on August, very much plan out through the first two plus weeks, very much in line with what we guided the Q3.

然後我想說，因為這與您在 8 月提出的問題有關，所以在前兩週多的時間裡進行了非常多的計劃，這與我們對第三季度的指導非常一致。

Understood. And then in terms of the gross margin outlook. So it would seem like you're basically expecting gross margin to be down again, perhaps more significantly in the third quarter as we does that is that fair. And then as you think about the flow of the vendor clawbacks, this would imply that really the clawbacks are starting in the fourth quarter and then we'll sort of continue into the first half of 2025. Thanks very much.

明白了。然後是毛利率前景。因此，您似乎基本上預計毛利率將再次下降，也許在第三季下降幅度更大，因為我們這樣做是公平的。然後，當您考慮供應商回撥的流程時，這意味著回撥實際上從第四季度開始，然後我們將持續到 2025 年上半年。

Yeah, Chris. So not not down. We are expecting it to be up both in Q3 and Q4 of this year. But again, on the year, roughly flat on I'll mention just a couple of the pushes and pulls we continue to make the supply chain investments are nearly complete with the rollout of market delivery investments. We're making early innings on pro fulfillment.

是的，克里斯。所以不降。我們預計今年第三季和第四季都會有所上升。但同樣，今年，大致持平，我將提到我們繼續進行的一些推動和拉動，隨著市場交付投資的推出，供應鏈投資已接近完成。我們正在早期實現職業成就。

And then as you mentioned, the merchant supply chain, PPI initiatives, the call back is going to continue to benefit really starts to accelerate into Q3, Q4. And as you mentioned, turning into 25, there's a lag effect there. Just with how that turns through inventory.

然後，正如您所提到的，商家供應鏈、PPI 舉措、回檔將繼續受益，真正開始加速進入第三季、第四季。正如你所提到的，變成 25 時，有滯後效應。只是如何透過庫存週轉。

Transportation costs continues to be a good guide for us as we leverage our scale. And then credit and shrink expect those to be roughly flat for the full year and a great job by the teams managing pressures in those two lines. So you're seeing that largely those things played out here in Q2 with the progression that we saw nicely from Q1 to Q2 on those same things roughly play out for the full year.

當我們利用我們的規模時，運輸成本仍然是我們的一個很好的指導。然後，信貸和收縮預計全年的情況將大致持平，並且團隊在管理這兩條線的壓力方面做得很好。因此，您會看到，這些事情基本上在第二季度發生了，我們從第一季到第二季很好地看到了這些事情的進展，這些事情大致會在全年發生。

Thank you. Have a great Labor Day.

謝謝。祝您勞動節愉快。

Thanks, Chris.

謝謝，克里斯。

Scot Ciccarelli, Truist Securities.

斯科特·西卡雷利 (Scot Ciccarelli)，Truist 證券公司。

Good morning, guys. I guess high-level question on your earnings algo. This will be basically the 3rd year of negative comps. I guess theoretically if comps were to stay negative in '25. Is there a point where de-leverage actually accelerates because of that costs nature of your model?

早安，夥計們。我猜想是關於你的收入演算法的高階問題。這基本上將是負面補償的第三年。我猜理論上如果比較在 25 年保持負數。由於模型的成本性質，去槓桿化實際上會加速嗎？

Yeah, I would say, Scott, we expect our kind of rule of thumb and the algorithm. We expect that still holds and it's directional and it applies mainly to the fiscal year. We still see plus 10 basis points on the upside for every incremental point of comp and then 15 basis points on the downside.

是的，我想說，史考特，我們期待我們的經驗法則和演算法。我們預計這一點仍然成立，並且具有方向性，主要適用於本財年。我們仍然認為，每增加一點比較，就會有 10 個基點的上行，然後就會有 15 個基點的下行。

That's what's reflected in our full year guide. And we're working really hard to kind of stay consistent with that it's not a natural output. And with all the work we've been doing across the portfolio with PPI and then you reference our overall road map.

這就是我們的全年指南中所反映的內容。我們正在非常努力地工作，以保持一致，這不是一個自然的輸出。我們與 PPI 一起在整個產品組合中進行了所有工作，然後您可以參考我們的整體路線圖。

We'll talk more about 2025 in December. But really the framework still hold everything we've been driving from a PR standpoint, offsetting investments we're making in gross margin on the SG&A side, same thing, investing or offsetting investments that we're making in wages, inflationary pressures, strategic investments, and it really comes down to the fixed cost leverage and our ability to grow top line but when we do that, we believe we stay consistent with that framework and we can see the expansion.

我們將在 12 月詳細討論 2025 年。但實際上，該框架仍然包含我們從公關角度推動的一切，抵消我們在銷售、管理和行政方面的毛利率方面的投資，同樣，投資或抵消我們在工資、通脹壓力、戰略方面的投資。 ，這實際上取決於固定成本槓桿和我們增加收入的能力，但當我們這樣做時，我們相信我們與該框架保持一致，並且我們可以看到擴張。

Helpful. And then just a quick follow-up. If additional changes to incentive comp has a significant impact on second quarter and your back half outlook. In other words, is that something we have to kind of consider as we think about now '25 earnings outlook?

有幫助。然後進行快速跟進。激勵補償的額外變化是否對第二季和下半年前景產生重大影響。換句話說，這是我們在思考 25 年獲利前景時必須考慮的事情嗎？

No, very consistent. The only thing from a incentive compensation standpoint is what I referred to with the noise in Q4 on the 140 discretionary pay-out in Q4, but largely consistent there. Nothing that would need to change or be factored in.

不，非常一致。從激勵薪酬的角度來看，唯一的事情是我在第四季度提到的關於第四季度 140 筆酌情支付的噪音，但基本上是一致的。沒有什麼需要改變或考慮的。

Great. Thanks for that.

偉大的。謝謝你。

Kate McShane, Goldman Sachs.

凱特麥克肖恩，高盛。

Hi, good morning. Thanks for taking our question. We were wondering if you could speak to how you're managing your inventory levels. I know inventory was down on a dollar basis in the quarter. But how are you thinking about inventory in the context of maybe a slightly more cautious demand environment second-half as well as possibly having to manage a higher ocean-free environment.

嗨，早安。感謝您提出我們的問題。我們想知道您是否可以談談您是如何管理庫存水準的。我知道本季庫存以美元計算有所下降。但是，在下半年需求環境可能稍微更加謹慎以及可能必須管理更高的無海洋環境的背景下，您如何考慮庫存。

Hey, Kate, we're really pleased with the ability to manage inventory. We continue to manage it with the sales trends that we're seeing. And it has inventory declined faster than sales. Inventories down at 3.3% year over year.

嘿，凱特，我們對管理庫存的能力非常滿意。我們繼續根據我們所看到的銷售趨勢進行管理。而且庫存下降速度快於銷售下降速度。庫存年減 3.3%。

We remain focused on making the investments in product and brands to support and accelerate the program that we've talked about. We feel like we're in a great position on in-stock levels. And then from a seasonal inventory standpoint, also in a good spot as we've managed the seasonal buys to the trends we're seeing.

我們仍然專注於對產品和品牌進行投資，以支持和加速我們所討論的計劃。我們覺得我們在庫存水準上處於有利地位。然後從季節性庫存的角度來看，這也處於一個很好的位置，因為我們已經根據我們所看到的趨勢管理了季節性購買。

And I think you also mentioned your freight rates from a transportation standpoint, we continue to see lower transportation costs as we've leveraged our scale to drive the lower rates that we've seen with our carriers. We are mostly insulated from that because we have contract pricing and we see those favorable rates kind of extending through the first part of 2025.

我認為您也從運輸的角度提到了您的運費，我們繼續看到運輸成本較低，因為我們利用我們的規模來推動我們與承運人一起看到的較低的運費。我們基本上不會受到這種影響，因為我們有合約定價，而且我們認為這些優惠利率會延續到 2025 年上半年。

We expect the favourability that we've seen in Q2 to kind of extend through the remainder of the year. And that's baked in our gross margin guide.

我們預計第二季的有利情況將延續到今年剩餘時間。這已納入我們的毛利率指南中。

And Kate, this is Marvin. One thing we don't talk a lot about is how we've converted our regional distribution centers to be more of a flow through of product versus stocking of product. If you go back six years, ago, these RDCs were basically the traditional hub and spoke distribution centers that basically held in store inventory and replenish stores.

凱特，這是馬文。我們不常談論的一件事是，我們如何將區域配送中心轉變為產品流通中心，而不是產品庫存中心。如果你回到六年前，這些區域配送中心基本上是傳統的軸輻式配送中心，主要保存商店庫存並補充商店。

And that really put a lot of pressure on turns and overall overall inventory position with over the years, the team has converted that to being majority flow. So we're just becoming more of a cross-dock type of environment and we have a very small percent of the inventory being stock debt will continue to evolve over time.

多年來，這確實給週轉率和整體庫存狀況帶來了很大的壓力，團隊已將其轉變為多數流量。因此，我們正在變得更像是跨碼頭類型的環境，而我們的庫存中只有很小一部分是庫存債務，隨著時間的推移，庫存債務將繼續發展。

And as Brandon noted, as we continue to make investments and finalize our build-out of our market delivery. That also puts us in a great position to continue to be the industry leader in appliances without having to hold that inventory the way we did years ago in the back of every store.

正如布蘭登所指出的，隨著我們繼續進行投資並最終完成我們的市場交付建設。這也使我們處於有利地位，可以繼續成為家電行業的領導者，而不必像幾年前那樣在每家商店後面保留庫存。

So there are cost of things that we're working on, that's going to give us the ability to improve our in-stock position, but also improve our turns at the same time.

因此，我們正在做的事情是有成本的，這將使我們有能力改善我們的庫存狀況，同時也提高我們的周轉率。

Thank you.

謝謝。

Robert Ohmes, Bank of America.

羅伯特·歐姆斯，美國銀行。

Thanks for taking my question. I'm really just them to two quick questions just on the back half and just going forward from here, the PPI initiatives have been amazing on the expense side. How much room is left? At what point do you get to diminishing returns on that in terms of managing expenses?

感謝您提出我的問題。我真的只是在後半部分回答兩個簡單的問題，從這裡開始，PPI 舉措在費用方面令人驚嘆。還剩多少空間？在管理費用方面，什麼時候你會出現收益遞減的狀況？

And, when we look at the back half, is it really more incentive comp and bonus comparisons that support SG&A being lower than it might otherwise be versus PPI initiatives?

而且，當我們查看後半部分時，是否真的有更多的激勵補償和獎金比較支持 SG&A 低於 PPI 計劃的其他水平？

Robbie, this is Brandon, signage and PPI. We're really proud of the progress that we've made with PPI. and broader expense management were offsetting over $500 million in associate wages, inflationary pressures and strategic investments that we're making here in 2024 the road map covers all aspects of the Company stores, merchandising, supply chain technology, our back office expense for infrastructure year, Joe and Bill kind of referenced a number of things going on there, and I would say we have great alignment across the organization to continue to maintain that discipline on, as Joe mentioned, increasingly able to enhance our customer experience while also driving productivity with tech-driven solutions.

羅比，我是布蘭登，標誌和 PPI。我們對 PPI 所取得的進展感到非常自豪。和更廣泛的費用管理抵消了超過5 億美元的員工薪資、通膨壓力和我們在2024 年在這裡進行的戰略投資。方面，喬和比爾提到了那裡發生的一些事情，我想說，我們整個組織都保持著良好的一致性，以繼續維持這一紀律，正如喬提到的那樣，越來越能夠增強我們的客戶體驗，同時也透過以下方式提高生產力：科技驅動的解決方案。

So on our cost, Marvin, anything else you want to add there?

那麼，關於我們的費用，馬文，您還有什麼要補充的嗎？

I'm going to just let Joe and Bill talk a little bit about PPI to brand this point. We are incredibly pleased with the progress that we made initially. Our productivity improvement initiatives were focused almost exclusively on store operations.

我將讓 Joe 和 Bill 談談 PPI，以明確這一點。我們對最初的進展感到非常滿意。我們的生產力提高計劃幾乎完全集中在商店營運上。

And now we've created culture where every functional area is driving their own PPI initiatives to not only drive improvements in the business and productivity, but also just drive overall efficiencies. I'm going to let Joe talk a bit about operations and then Bill will talk about merchandising and what we're going to be seeing not only in the back half of the year, but going forward. So Joe will share with you that.

現在，我們已經創建了一種文化，其中每個職能領域都在推動自己的 PPI 計劃，不僅推動業務和生產力的改進，而且還提高整體效率。我會讓喬談談營運方面的問題，然後比爾會談談銷售以及我們不僅會在今年下半年看到的情況，而且還會看到未來的情況。那麼喬將與您分享這一點。

Robbie, thanks for the question. And while we've made a lot of progress, we're only in the middle innings of the productivity journey, a lot of runway still in front of us, not talk about things in the past front-end transformation.

羅比，謝謝你的提問。雖然我們已經取得了很大的進步，但我們只是處於生產力之旅的中局，前面還有很多跑道，不談過去前端轉型的事情。

We're not in 50% through our front-end transformation. This is not only focused on the operations side, but also the sales side. And so we worked hand-in-hand in things like our activity-based labor model that we continue to invest in.

我們的前端轉型還沒完成 50%。這不僅關注營運方面，也關注銷售方面。因此，我們在諸如我們繼續投資的基於活動的勞動力模式等方面攜手合作。

We've continued to refine the advanced labor management tools that we're using today and also the MST program that is added at 30,000 plus associates to the sales floor and so as the teams continue to work together and we continue to see a lot of runway ahead and streamlining the back end processes are still in front of us and a lot more to go. And so I'll toss it over to Bill for.

我們繼續完善我們今天使用的先進勞動力管理工具以及 MST 計劃，該計劃在銷售樓層增加了 30,000 多名員工，因此隨著團隊繼續合作，我們繼續看到很多前方跑道和簡化後端流程仍然擺在我們面前，而且還有很多工作要做。所以我會把它交給比爾。

Yeah, thanks, Joe. And Robbie, on the merch side and I hit on a couple of them in my prepared remarks. We are working on costs with suppliers is an ongoing, you know, process and merchants do that on a daily basis through product line reviews, business reviews, but certainly productivity is part of what we do on it on a weekly basis and making sure that we've got the right stuff in the stores and online, I hit on Retail Media Network as you know, part of what we're doing as well, making sure that we're working with our vendor partners to look at different options in regards to how we put marketing strategies together.

是的，謝謝，喬。羅比，在商品方面，我在準備好的發言中提到了其中的幾個。我們與供應商一起研究成本是一個持續的過程，商家每天都會透過產品線審查、業務審查來做到這一點，但生產力當然是我們每週所做工作的一部分，並確保我們在商店和網路上都有合適的東西，正如你所知，我偶然發現了零售媒體網絡，這也是我們正在做的事情的一部分，確保我們正在與我們的供應商合作夥伴合作，研究不同的選擇關於我們如何整合營銷策略。

Our private brand work that we've been doing over the last six years, we focus on opportunities where we can put private brands into our assortments, those opportunities to put those products into our assortment typically come with a higher margin. And so that offers that opportunity to put, you know, better in performing product in the assortment.

我們過去六年一直在做的自有品牌工作，我們專注於將自有品牌納入我們的產品組合的機會，這些將這些產品納入我們的產品組合的機會通常會帶來更高的利潤。因此，這提供了更好地提高產品種類的機會。

So it's just a few examples on the merch side.

這只是商品方面的幾個例子。

That sounds great. Thanks so much, guys.

聽起來很棒。非常感謝，夥計們。

Thanks, Robbie.

謝謝，羅比。

David Bellinger, Mizuho Securities.

大衛貝林格，瑞穗證券。

Good morning. Thanks for taking the questions. So again, good continued progress on the Pro of mid-single digits. What's the next iteration for your pro customer that are there additional levers we can see take shape, maybe more brand loyalty working upstream with somewhat larger Pro? And does Lowe's do anything today in terms of trade credit with it Pro customer?

早安.感謝您提出問題。再說一次，Pro 的持續進步達到了中個位數。對於您的專業客戶來說，下一個迭代是什麼？ 我們可以看到更多的槓桿正在形成，也許更多的品牌忠誠度與更大的專業客戶一起上游工作？ Lowe's 今天在與其 Pro 客戶的貿易信貸方面做了什麼嗎？

Now I'd say, David, thank you for the question. I think first, if we could take a step back and think about what we've done thus far and one of the things that we identified from the very beginning of this transformation was the fact that we needed a very consistent and coherent approach to how we serve the Pro customer.

現在我想說，大衛，謝謝你的提問。我認為首先，如果我們能夠退後一步，思考一下我們迄今為止所做的事情，我們從這一轉變一開始就確定的事情之一是，我們需要一種非常一致和連貫的方法來如何我們為專業客戶提供服務。

And it really started with service levels in the store because regardless of what level of fulfillment and fulfillment capabilities you have in home improvement stores will still be an incredibly important part of the fill-in project nature need for a pro customer.

它實際上是從商店的服務水平開始的，因為無論您在家裝商店中擁有什麼水平的履行和履行能力，仍然是專業客戶的填寫項目性質需求中極其重要的一部分。

And so our service levels were subpar at best. And so Joe and team have done an incredible job of elevating those standards. Do we had to get our product assortment, right? We had customers no longer shopped us because there were brands that they were loyal to that literally had stopped selling to Lowe's.

因此，我們的服務水準充其量只是低於標準。因此，喬和團隊在提高這些標準方面做了令人難以置信的工作。我們必須取得我們的產品種類嗎？我們的顧客不再購買我們的產品，因為他們忠誠的一些品牌實際上已經停止向 Lowe's 銷售。

And so Bill and his team has done an equally incredible job of bringing those brands back to us. Your Bill noted in his prepared comments, just the success of our relationship with client tools and client one of those customers that when we arrived was no longer doing business, we'll close and it remains the number one brand for electrical and HVAC pros.

因此，比爾和他的團隊做了同樣令人難以置信的工作，將這些品牌帶回給我們。你的比爾在他準備好的評論中指出，我們與客戶工具和客戶之一的關係取得了成功，當我們到達時不再開展業務，我們將關閉，它仍然是電氣和暖通空調專業人士的第一品牌。

And then we had to get committed to our inventory levels. We talk a lot about job lot quantities, but we had to do that in a way that we gave PROS confidence and also in a way that we would not leave our stores vulnerable for large purchases that we could replenish quickly.

然後我們必須致力於我們的庫存水準。我們談論了很多關於工作批量的問題，但我們必須以一種給 PROS 信心的方式來做到這一點，同時我們也不會讓我們的商店容易受到我們可以快速補充的大量採購的影響。

And so after we establish those foundational things, we knew that the next step was creating stickiness where you would give those customers a reason to shop us versus the competition rolled out our loyalty program a little over a year ago and then we rolled out a more sophisticated CRM platform.

因此，在我們建立了這些基礎性的東西之後，我們知道下一步就是創造黏性，讓這些客戶有理由購買我們的產品，而不是競爭對手一年多前推出了我們的忠誠度計劃，然後我們推出了更多成熟的 CRM 平台。

And now we're continuing to build on all of those things with more job site fulfillment. So quantity variance, our EVP of coal and home services at our upcoming Analyst and Investor Conference is going to lay out our long-term vision of where we plan to take Pro, and that's going to have a lot to do with identifying segments approach that we are barely scratching the surface today from a share standpoint that we're going to start to pursue in addition to ways we're going to enhance fulfillment and how we're going to be able to bring a more digitally friendly relationship or process.

現在，我們將繼續在所有這些事情的基礎上，實現更多的工作現場履行。因此，數量差異，我們的煤炭和家庭服務執行副總裁將在即將舉行的分析師和投資者會議上闡述我們計劃採取 Pro 的長期願景，這與確定細分市場方法有很大關係今天，從分享的角度來看，我們僅僅觸及了表面，除了我們將提高實現感的方式以及我們將如何能夠帶來更加數位化友好的關係或流程之外，我們還將開始追求這一點。

So they can have a larger selection of product choices and do it in a more seamless nature. We're incredibly excited about our Pro customer. And as I said earlier, we believe strongly that the pressure that we're feeling with the discretionary big ticket DIY is in large part a macro influence issue.

因此，他們可以有更多的產品選擇，並且可以更無縫地進行。我們對 Pro 客戶感到非常興奮。正如我之前所說，我們堅信，我們在可自由支配的大額 DIY 中感受到的壓力在很大程度上是一個宏觀影響問題。

And so as we now have momentum with the Pro momentum with our digital strategy, we believe that when a marketplace in flex and the DIY customer starts to have a strong confidence in making those discretionary purchases that we're going to have the full flywheel effect of our market share gains.

因此，隨著我們現在透過數位化策略獲得 Pro 動力，我們相信，當 Flex 市場和 DIY 客戶開始對進行這些可自由支配的購買有強烈的信心時，我們將獲得全面的飛輪效應我們的市場份額增長。

In the meantime, we're going to be incredibly disciplined on these key parts of our business. But we're very excited about what we're doing and probably more importantly, what we're going to be doing in the future.

同時，我們將在業務的這些關鍵部分上嚴格遵守紀律。但我們對我們正在做的事情感到非常興奮，更重要的是，我們對未來要做的事情感到非常興奮。

Thanks, Marvin. And that's very helpful. And then I also wanted to ask on the rural store performance, and I'm not sure if you called that out in the prepared remarks, just any change in trend there. And then secondly, there's been some mention of faster delivery times one-day two-day shipping in those markets for a major e-commerce player. How should we think about any potential impact for the more rural load store base just given that development.

謝謝，馬文。這非常有幫助。然後我還想問一下農村商店的表現，我不確定你在準備好的發言中是否提到了這一點，只是那裡的趨勢發生了任何變化。其次，有人提到主要電子商務公司在這些市場上可以提供更快的一日兩日送貨服務。鑑於這一發展，我們應該如何考慮對更多農村負載商店基地的潛在影響。

So the great thing about our gig network and the work that we've done online is we're serving all customers and giving them ability to get same-day, next-day fulfillment across all of our partners. We feel really good about what's happening in our rural markets day perform to our expectations.

因此，我們的零工網絡和我們在網路上所做的工作的偉大之處在於，我們為所有客戶提供服務，並使他們能夠在我們所有的合作夥伴中獲得當日、次日的履行。我們對農村市場當天所發生的事情符合我們的預期感到非常滿意。

We are piloting a lot of unique and different initiatives in some of these stores. And you could argue that we're pressure testing some of these locations to see what works and what does not work one thing I will tell you is that we're still very excited about what we're doing with our workwear initiative, specifically with Carhartt.

我們正在其中一些商店試行許多獨特且不同的措施。你可能會說，我們正在對其中一些地點進行壓力測試，看看哪些有效，哪些無效。卡哈特。

We're excited what we're seeing with our pet food and pet initiative overall. And what we're seeing with just ATV and other activities, our rural customers participate in. But we were pleased with our overall performance. We're pleased that we're able to take this digital gig platform and serve customers in both urban, suburban and rural area that it can work just continuing to build on that, and we'll provide more context when we get together in December. But we think role is going to be a significant part of our growth strategy.

總體而言，我們對寵物食品和寵物倡議所看到的結果感到非常興奮。我們看到，僅透過全地形車和其他活動，我們的農村客戶就參與其中。我們很高興能夠利用這個數位演出平台為城市、郊區和農村地區的客戶提供服務，它可以繼續在此基礎上繼續發展，當我們在 12 月聚會時，我們將提供更多背景資訊。但我們認為角色將成為我們成長策略的重要組成部分。

Got it. Thank you very much

知道了。非常感謝

Zach Fadem, Wells Fargo.

札克法德姆，富國銀行。

Good morning. If we assume the Fed starts easing in the next couple of months, what level of rate cut or rate level do you think is the right level to start stimulating demand in the category again? And is there anything in your history that would suggest a faster recovery one way or the other in Pro or DIY site?

早安.如果我們假設聯準會在未來幾個月內開始寬鬆，您認為降息或利率水準是多少水準才能再次開始刺激該類別的需求？在您的歷史中是否有任何事情表明在 Pro 或 DIY 網站中以某種方式更快地恢復？

Yeah, this is Brandon. As it relates to the interest rate environment. So for us, it's difficult to know at what absolute interest rate level, we're going to see our consumers fully engage or how long the demand will lag the actual rate cuts that we're seeing. And we absolutely, as we sit here today see pent-up demand in the business.

是的，這是布蘭登。因為它與利率環境有關。因此，對我們來說，很難知道在什麼絕對利率水平下，我們將看到我們的消費者充分參與，或者需求將落後於我們所看到的實際降息多長時間。當我們今天坐在這裡時，我們絕對看到了業務中被壓抑的需求。

But on the flip side, when we look at consumer sentiment that continues to remain weak, we are hopeful that the lower rates, the drops that we're seeing are going to have a dual impact of one relieving pressure on consumers and then secondly, driving the existing home sales activity.

但另一方面，當我們看到消費者信心繼續疲軟時，我們希望較低的利率，我們所看到的下降將產生雙重影響，一是緩解消費者的壓力，二是，推動現有房屋銷售活動。

But the reality is when we look at the lock-in effect, the majority of homeowners are still at 4% mortgage rates or less. So even if we do see, we'll have some level of decrease that we do believe there still might be a reluctance to engage. So we're staying close to it beyond the rates. Marvin reiterated the primary drivers of our business, and that's been consistent.

但現實情況是，當我們考慮鎖定效應時，大多數房主的抵押貸款利率仍處於 4% 或更低。因此，即使我們確實看到了，我們也會有一定程度的下降，我們相信仍然可能不願意參與。因此，除了利率之外，我們還保持接近它的水平。馬文重申了我們業務的主要驅動力，這是一致的。

So we're balancing rate activity with some broader recovery that we see across some of these other metrics that we track very closely.

因此，我們正在平衡利率活動與我們在密切追蹤的其他一些指標中看到的更廣泛的復甦。

Got it. And thanks, Brandon. And I don't want to front run the analyst day too much, but you have talked about a long-term margin for this business of about 14.5%. And given where we are today and the changes that have have occurred since you first provided that that outlook, curious if it's still the right way to think about the business long term and what level of top line and near-term recovery, do you think we need to see to reach that level?

知道了。謝謝，布蘭登。我不想提前太多的分析師日，但你已經談到了這項業務的長期利潤率約為 14.5%。考慮到我們今天的處境以及自您首次提供這種前景以來所發生的變化，我想知道這是否仍然是考慮長期業務以及營收和近期復甦水平的正確方法，您認為我們需要看到達到那個水平嗎？

Yeah, I will hold off on getting too much into that detail. I think the punch line, Zach, is the framework still holds. It is as we look ROE relative to what we talked about in December '22, I think the degree of step back now that we've seen in '23. And now that what we're seeing in '24 is a little bit worse than our original expectations, but we're not going to call the turn or the inflection point we do believe there's a lot of pent-up demand. We do have a lot of confidence in the medium to long term drivers.

是的，我不會過多討論這個細節。扎克，我認為最重要的是這個框架仍然有效。當我們相對於我們在 22 年 12 月討論的情況來看待 ROE 時，我認為我們在 23 年看到了現在的退步程度。現在我們在 24 年看到的情況比我們最初的預期要差一點，但我們不會稱之為轉折點或轉折點，我們確實相信有很多被壓抑的需求。我們確實對中長期驅動因素充滿信心。

When we do get back to kind of that mid-single digit recovery in comp that we've traditionally seen in home improvement. We believe we can outpace that with the initiatives that we have in place and the degree and the timing of the expansion on operating margin, again is going to be contingent on the pace in which that top line recovers.

當我們確實回到我們傳統上在家居裝修中看到的那種中等個位數的復甦時。我們相信，憑藉我們所採取的舉措以及營業利潤率擴張的程度和時間，我們可以超越這一點，這將再次取決於營收恢復的速度。

Got it. Thanks for the time.

知道了。謝謝你的時間。

Rob, we have time for one more question.

羅布，我們還有時間再問一個問題。

Brian Nagel, Oppenheimer.

布萊恩·內格爾，奧本海默。

Hi, good morning. Thanks for taking my questions. So my first question of I guess that's a bit of a follow-up to that, the progression was on rental rate and what are the different directionally look, I think you as an operator reason, investors are waiting for a more accommodative rate environment to underpin better demand within Home Improvement sort of the world.

嗨，早安。感謝您回答我的問題。所以我的第一個問題我想這是一個後續問題，進展是租金率以及不同的方向看起來是什麼，我認為你作為運營商的原因，投資者正在等待更寬鬆的利率環境支撐家居裝修領域更好的需求。

Last question is, as you look at your business and we've seen that while ways continuing to take hold maybe even intensify over the past couple of quarters, where are the incremental risks work at Work business actually get weaker here before we get that rate relief? If you will.

最後一個問題是，當您審視您的業務時，我們發現，雖然過去幾個季度繼續佔據主導地位的方式甚至可能會加劇，但在我們獲得該比率之前，工作業務的增量風險在哪裡實際上會減弱寬慰？如果你願意的話。

Brian, this is Brandon. At mortgage rates are obviously coming down. We expect that to continue to come down further as we turn into '25. But we look at consumer sentiment, existing home sales housing, the full affordability, those are still concerns.

布萊恩，這是布蘭登。抵押貸款利率明顯下降。我們預計進入 25 年後這一數字將繼續進一步下降。但我們看看消費者信心、現房銷售情況、完全的負擔能力，這些仍然是令人擔憂的。

We continue to see pressure. Their consumers are still showing a preference for services versus goods, especially in home improvement and improvement in these macro trends that we should see and drive sustained an increase in discretionary projects and DIY traffic.

我們繼續面臨壓力。他們的消費者仍然表現出對服務而非商品的偏好，特別是在家居裝修和改善這些宏觀趨勢中，我們應該看到並推動可自由支配項目和 DIY 流量的持續增長。

So particularly in the bigger ticket categories, which is what we're watching for, that's the inflection that we expect. But in terms of the timing and our ability to call out on that, that's what's unclear to us at this point?

因此，特別是在更大的門票類別中，這就是我們正在關注的，這就是我們所期望的變化。但就時機和我們呼籲這一點的能力而言，這就是我們目前還不清楚的地方？

So Brian, this is Marvin. I'll take another angle to your question. And so for us, obviously, we don't have crystal ball to call the inflection when that will happen nor to Brandon's earlier comments, can we pinpoint what rate environment we have to be in before it starts to positively affect this DIY discretionary pullback for big ticket.

布萊恩，這是馬文。我從另一個角度來回答你的問題。因此，對我們來說，顯然，我們沒有水晶球來預測何時會發生拐點，也沒有布蘭登之前的評論，我們能否確定在它開始對這種DIY 酌情回調產生積極影響之前我們必須處於什麼樣的利率環境？

We're trying to do is in this headwind environment that we're in is just continuing to leverage our great balance sheet to invest in technology and innovation to make sure we continue to execute our Total Home strategy, which is allowing us to pick up share and pro our improve online business, continue to build out a technology platform for our home installation business, which was incredibly neglected from a technology standpoint for many, many years because we know that when the inflection happens in the DIY returns, we want to be perfectly positioned to really take share, not just in DIY, but also across all the other elements that I talked about.

我們正在努力做的是，在我們所處的逆風環境中，繼續利用我們龐大的資產負債表投資於技術和創新，以確保我們繼續執行我們的整體家居戰略，這使我們能夠回升分享和支持我們改進的線上業務，繼續為我們的家庭安裝業務建立一個技術平台，從技術角度來看，這個平台多年來一直被忽視，因為我們知道，當DIY 回報發生變化時，我們希望處於完全能夠真正分享份額的位置，不僅在DIY 方面，而且在我談到的所有其他元素中。

So rather than sitting back and waiting, we are aggressively working in this downturn, leveraging our balance sheet to do these aggressive investments and position ourselves. So when it happens, whenever the macro inflection occurs, we just want to be we're ready to take advantage of and we think we will be.

因此，我們沒有袖手旁觀，而是在這次低迷時期積極工作，利用我們的資產負債表進行這些積極的投資並定位自己。因此，當這種情況發生時，每當宏觀拐點發生時，我們只想做好充分利用的準備，並且我們認為我們會這樣做。

And so we're just fortunate that we have the ability to continue to be aggressive in all of those areas. And just preparing for the eventual time when the market will open back up again, and we're going to be prepared when it does.

因此，我們很幸運，我們有能力繼續在所有這些領域中積極進取。只是為市場再次開放的最終時刻做好準備，我們將在那時做好準備。

So that's very helpful. I appreciate it. And my quick follow up, I guess is more what you branded, but just with respect to the commentary around Q3 so, comps in Q2 were down, call it 5%.

這非常有幫助。我很感激。我的快速跟進，我想更多的是你的品牌，但就第三季的評論而言，第二季的比較下降了，稱之為 5%。

You talked about 200 basis points improvement. So I think in response to someone else's question, you said you're basically right there now. So does that mean the business is running to a negative three is that the math.

您談到了 200 個基點的改進。所以我認為在回答別人的問題時，你說你現在基本上就在那裡。那麼，這是否意味著業務正在運行到負三？

So like our rescue brand and from that question and answer for you, we tend not to be that precise, you know, with current monthly trends, but the best way for me and us to answer that question, Brian, and I appreciate the question is when we look at our current business trends, they are reflective of the guidance we gave understanding that our business will fluctuate throughout the quarter and so we're not going to give a specific comp percent other than to say, we feel confident that our current trends reflect the guidance we gave. And I think that's probably the best efficient way to accurate.

因此，就像我們的救援品牌一樣，從這個問題和答案來看，我們往往不會那麼精確，你知道，根據當前的每月趨勢，但對我和我們來說，回答這個問題的最佳方式是，布萊恩，我很欣賞這個問題是當我們審視當前的業務趨勢時，它們反映了我們給出的指導，我們了解我們的業務將在整個季度波動，因此我們不會給出具體的補償百分比，只是說，我們有信心我們的業務將在整個季度波動。我認為這可能是最有效的準確方法。

Appreciate it. Thanks, Marvin. Thank you.

欣賞它。謝謝，馬文。謝謝。

Thanks for the question.

謝謝你的提問。

Thank you all for joining us today. We look forward to speaking with you on our third-quarter earnings call in November.

感謝大家今天加入我們。我們期待在 11 月的第三季財報電話會議上與您交談。

This concludes the low second quarter 2024 earnings call. You may now disconnect.

2024 年第二季財報電話會議至此結束。您現在可以斷開連線。