Home Depot Inc. on Tuesday said first-quarter earnings jumped 21 percent, topping estimates, driven by store improvements, strong appliance sales and big gains in services revenue.
Based on the quarterly performance, the world's largest home improvement retailer raised its earnings and sales forecast for the full year.
First-quarter net income was $1.1 billion, or 49 cents a share, compared with $907 million, or 39 cents a share, a year earlier. Sales at stores open at least a year, an important retail measure, rose 7.7 percent, the highest first-quarter growth in five years.
Analysts on average were expecting profit of 43 cents a share, according to Reuters Research, a unit of Reuters Group Plc.
Total sales rose 16 percent to $17.55 billion, topping an average estimate of $17.12 billion. Home Depot cited strength in every product category as its average purchase rose 7 percent to $55.11. Appliances and services were strong performers, the company said.
Home Depot, which is investing heavily in store modernization and technology upgrades this year, said sales per square foot rose about 4 percent to $376.80, the third straight quarter of improvement.
Home Depot raised its fiscal 2004 sales growth forecast to 10 to 12 percent from the previous 9 percent to 12 percent. It also raised per-share earnings growth guidance to 10 percent to 14 percent from 7 percent to 11 percent.
