Methodology: Home-Improvement Operating Metrics
What these figures are
The Operating Metrics card on a home-improvement retailer’s or distributor’s stock page shows the operating statistics the company reports in its own quarterly earnings release — the SEC Form 8-K exhibit filed alongside the results. These are the numbers used to describe how the existing store base is performing, who is buying (professionals versus do-it-yourselfers), and how productive the footprint is. Oxford Ledge reads them directly from the as-filed exhibit and normalizes the labels so you can compare a company to itself over time.
They are an Oxford Ledge Signal: our reading of a public filing, not a re-audit of the company’s books and not a licensed data-vendor feed. Every value on the card carries its filing as-of date and links back to the SEC source.
The metrics, in plain English
| Metric | What it measures |
|---|---|
| Comparable sales | The change in sales at locations open at least a year (“comps”) — the core demand measure. |
| Traffic & average ticket | The change in transactions, and in average spend per transaction — the two halves of a comp. |
| Big-ticket comp | The comp in high-price purchases (appliances, big projects) — the most economically sensitive, discretionary part of demand. |
| Pro / DIY mix | The split between professional (contractor) and do-it-yourself customers — Pro is larger-basket and stickier. |
| Sales per sq ft & unit count | The productivity of the footprint, and the number of stores. |
Why retailers and distributors are compared separately
“Home improvement” spans two different business models. Big-box retailers (the large warehouse chains) sell to consumers and pros out of stores and report same-store comps; pro-focused distributors sell building products to trades and report organic growth. Their operating metrics are not directly comparable, so the peer table is split by subcohort (Retailers, Distributors), and you pick one. Each subcohort is its own comparable series; a blank cell inside a subcohort is an honest coverage gap, never a value pooled in from the other type.
Why comparable sales shows a definition
Companies define comparable sales slightly differently — some report it as-reported, others on an organic basis that adjusts for acquisitions or calendar shifts. These are different numbers, so we treat the reported comp as the headline and badge an organic variant, and on the peer table the comp column pins the reported definition so you compare like with like.
How we read and normalize it
For each company we fetch the most recent quarterly earnings 8-K exhibit from SEC EDGAR, locate the operating table, and read each value verbatim from the reported column — never a prior-year or year-to-date column standing in for the quarter. We bind the subcohort (retailer vs distributor) and record each comp’s definition, and read traffic, ticket, and big-ticket comps as their own independent figures.
The reading is checked against a hand-verified golden set for each company before any figure is allowed to publish; a value whose definition the extractor cannot confidently determine is withheld rather than shown.
What we deliberately do not do
- We do not re-audit. The figures are as reported by the issuer under regulatory convention. We normalize labels; we do not restate the company’s numbers.
- We do not pool retailers with distributors. The two subcohorts are separate comparable series.
- We do not re-normalize a comp definition. Each comp is read as reported; the peer table compares the reported definition and leaves the rest blank.
- We do not treat these as forecasts, ratings, or advice. They are historical operating results a company disclosed, presented for study.
Freshness
The stock page is cached at the edge, so a brand-new filing’s figures can lag up to a day on the cached page. Each value is stamped with the filing it came from, so the as-of date always tells you exactly how current the number is.