Home Depot Completes Malware Elimination; Boosts FY14 EPS Outlook

(RTTNews) - Home Depot, Inc. (HD), the world's largest home improvement retailer, confirmed Thursday that the malware used in its recent breach has been eliminated from its U.S. and Canadian networks.

The company also said it has completed a major payment security project that provides enhanced encryption of payment data at point of sale in the company's U.S. stores, offering significant new protection for customers. Roll-out of enhanced encryption to Canadian stores will be complete by early 2015. Canadian stores are already enabled with EMV "Chip and PIN" technology.

The investigation into a possible breach began on Tuesday morning, September 2, immediately after Home Depot received reports from its banking partners and law enforcement that criminals may have breached its systems.

The company's ongoing investigation has determined that criminals used unique, custom-built malware to evade detection. The malware had not been seen previously in other attacks, according to Home Depot's security partners. The cyber-attack is estimated to have put payment card information at risk for about 56 million unique payment cards, Home Depot noted. The malware is believed to have been present between April and September.

Additionally, the company said its third quarter sales, including sales in September, are on plan. Based on its third quarter results to date, the company confirmed its previous fiscal 2014 sales growth guidance of about 4.8%.

The company said it now expects fiscal 2014 earnings per share to grow 21% to about $4.54. Previously, the company expected fiscal 2014 earnings per share to grow 20.2% to $4.52.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expect the company to earn $4.50 per share on revenue growth of 4.9% for the fiscal year 2014.