Home Depot crushes it again; ups outlook for the year

ATLANTA (AP) — Home Depot, with unemployment falling, mortgage rates near historic lows and wages and home prices rising, upped its outlook for the year as sales surged in the third quarter and customers spent more with each visit.

Home Depot and rival Lowe's have stood out from other retailers for several years now, thanks in part to ultralow mortgage rates that have led to a warming housing market and an increase in refinancing.

For the three months ended Oct. 30, Home Depot Inc. earned $1.97 billion, or $1.60 per share, which was 2 cents better than Wall Street had expected, according to a poll of industry analysts by Zacks Investment Research.

[...] it was much better than the $1.73 billion, or $1.35 per share, put up by the Atlanta company last year.

Home Depot ran a total of 2,276 retail stores in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, 10 Canadian provinces and Mexico at the third quarter's end.