Home Depot (HD), the world’s biggest home improvement chain, reported better-than-expected quarterly comparable sales and profit, saying that inconsistent weather drove demand across the board.
Shares of the company, which also raised its sales and profit forecast for the year ending January 2017, were up 2.5% at $138.75 in premarket trading on Tuesday.
Sales at Home Depot’s U.S. stores open for more than a year rose 7.4%, well above the average 4.9% average forecast of analysts surveyed by research firm Consensus Metrix.
The company’s net income increased to $1.80 billion, or $1.44 per share in the first quarter ended May 1, from $1.58 billion, or $1.21 per share, a year earlier.
Net sales rose 9% to $22.76 billion.
Analysts on average had expected earnings of $1.36 per share and revenue of $22.39 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.