ATLANTA -- Home Depot breezed past all expectations in the third quarter and raised its annual profit expectations again as Americans plow money into their homes, even with hints that the housing market is cooling.
Comparable-store sales, a key indicator of a retailer's health, rose 4.8 per cent, but it jumped 5.4 per cent in the U.S., its dominant market.
Home Depot on Tuesday issued new profit projections, saying that it now expects -year earnings to climb about 33.8 per cent, or $9.75 per share. Its previous outlook was for a 29.2 per cent increase. Analysts surveyed by FactSet expect earnings of $9.56 per share.
For the period ended Oct. 28, the Atlanta company earned $2.87 billion, or $2.51 per share, far exceeding per-share projections for $2.27 on Wall Street, according to a survey of analysts polled by Zacks Investment Research.
A year earlier Home Depot earned $2.17 billion, or $1.84 per share.
Revenue climbed to $26.3 billion from $25.03 billion, beating Wall Street's $26.21 billion prediction.
Revenue is now expected to rise approximately 7.2 per cent, up slightly from its prior forecast for an increase of about 7 per cent. Comparable-store sales are now anticipated to climb approximately 5.5 per cent. Home Depot previous outlook was for the metric to increase about 5.3 per cent.
Shares of The Home Depot Inc. rose more than 2 per cent before the opening bell.
