Home Depot 2010 Annual Report Download - page 4

Download and view the complete annual report

Please find page 4 of the 2010 Home Depot annual report below. You can navigate through the pages in the report by either clicking on the pages listed below, or by using the keyword search tool below to find specific information within the annual report.

Page out of 72

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • 6
  • 7
  • 8
  • 9
  • 10
  • 11
  • 12
  • 13
  • 14
  • 15
  • 16
  • 17
  • 18
  • 19
  • 20
  • 21
  • 22
  • 23
  • 24
  • 25
  • 26
  • 27
  • 28
  • 29
  • 30
  • 31
  • 32
  • 33
  • 34
  • 35
  • 36
  • 37
  • 38
  • 39
  • 40
  • 41
  • 42
  • 43
  • 44
  • 45
  • 46
  • 47
  • 48
  • 49
  • 50
  • 51
  • 52
  • 53
  • 54
  • 55
  • 56
  • 57
  • 58
  • 59
  • 60
  • 61
  • 62
  • 63
  • 64
  • 65
  • 66
  • 67
  • 68
  • 69
  • 70
  • 71
  • 72

At The Home Depot, our goal is to provide the best customer service and the best product values in our market,
with an underlying principle of disciplined capital allocation. Our approach to capital allocation is
straightforward: after making the necessary investments in our business, we will return excess cash to our
shareholders through dividends and share repurchases. We have a targeted dividend payout of approximately 40
percent of earnings, and we recently announced a 6 percent increase in our annual dividend to $1.00 per share.
This is our second consecutive annual increase. We used excess cash to repurchase $2.6 billion in stock during
2010, and we plan to continue repurchasing shares in 2011. We have a goal of achieving a 15 percent return on
invested capital, and we have a plan to reach that goal by the end of 2013.
Our “orange-blooded” associates make the difference in our business. We have a Success Sharing bonus program
for our hourly associates. Because of their great work in 2010, we were able to issue Success Sharing checks of
over $126 million to eligible associates, five times more than we issued in 2006. We are a values-based business,
and one of our core values is taking care of our associates.
I hope as you spend time in our stores or on our web site or on our mobile applications, you will see continued
improvement in our service and our commitment to our customers.
Francis S. Blake
Chairman & Chief Executive Officer
March 24, 2011