The Home Depot shared some key planning and financial insights to the business community during the December Investor and Analyst Conference. Among key points highlighted were the company’s projected sales increase for 2011, its plan to open 10 new stores, and its interconnecting retail plan for the New Year. New retail locations will be opening up in Mexico, Canada and the United States. The company also will be rolling out a new mobile application to help customers shop online more efficiently….Read More

Costco outperformed expectations on Wednesday, posting a higher quarterly profit than what was originally predicted by financial analysts. Despite the belief that tougher comparisons would slow down sales during the holiday season, the company’s sales growth continued to build momentum as the quarter progressed, due in part to strong sales and increased revenue fee. Analysts attribute the better-than-expected results from the improvements in the California market, which is responsible for more than a quarter of Costco’s sales….Read More

Home Depot is expecting both sales and profits to rise next year due in part to the retail conglomerate’s plan to open 10 new stores. The expectation is that sales will grow by over 2% while its operating margin will improve by 30 to 40 percentage points. Earnings per share are also expected to rise from its continued operations growth before share repurchases to somewhere in between 7% to 9%….Read More