Investing.com - Home improvement retailer Home Depot (NYSE:HD) reported better-than-expected third quarter earnings on the back of strong revenue figures, it announced early Tuesday.
Home Depot said earnings per share came in at $1.15 in the third quarter, above expectations for earnings of $1.13 per share.
The company’s third quarter revenue totaled $20.5 billion, beating forecasts for revenue of $20.46 billion.
Third quarter results reflect a pretax gain on sale of $100 million related to the sale of a portion of the Company's equity ownership in HD Supply Holdings, Inc. and pretax net expenses of $28 million related to the company's data breach.
Comparable store sales for the third quarter of fiscal 2014 were positive 5.2%, and comp sales for U.S. stores were positive 5.8%.
"During the quarter we saw strong performance across all geographies led by growth in transactions and continued strength in the core of the store," said Craig Menear, CEO and president.
Home Depot confirmed that it expects fiscal 2014 sales growth of approximately 4.8%. The company also confirmed that it expects fiscal 2014 diluted earnings per share to grow by 21% to approximately $4.54.
Following the release of the report, (NYSE:HD) shares inched up 0.25% in pre-market trade.
Meanwhile, the outlook for U.S. equity markets was mildly lower. The Dow futures pointed to a loss of 0.1% at the open, the S&P 500 futures indicated a decline of 0.1%, while the Nasdaq 100 futures slipped 0.1%.