This story is republished from CFOZone, where you’ll find news, analysis and professional networking tools for finance executives.
Most investors appreciate seasonality. They get that retail peaks around Christmas and that your big back to school sale will be in August.
Still, some executives like to remind us that their business is busier at certain times of the year than at others. And it’s not uncommon for execs to claim the weather ate their earnings.
All in all, these explanations are pretty lame. Either investors already understand the business cycle or they don’t want to hear the excuse.
Given that, I like the approach of Carol Tome, CFO of Home Depot.
At a retail conference sponsored by Citigroup, “Tome said that while the retailer hates to be one that cites the weather for sales trends variability, Home Depot does experience that, and it has seen ‘great variability’ in weather conditions across the country so far this year.”
So, there you go. Tome agrees that blaming the weather is lame. But, at the same time, you have to agree that the weather this year has been pretty outrageous, right?
Then again, Tome isn’t totally going to hide behind the clouds.
“Nothing has come to our attention that suggests we can’t hit the financial objectives that we’ve set forth,” she said, according to Dow Jones.
In the end, if you’re a Home Depot investor, pray we don’t have a June like last year.
“When the sun is shining, we’re very, very pleased with our performance,” Tome said.