Smaller Projects Boost Home Depot Sales Amid Ongoing Housing Slump

Home Depot's quarterly sales saw an improvement due to customers focusing on smaller projects during the summer months. The U.S. housing sector remains in a slump, but the company's revenue increased to $47.86 billion from $45.28 billion.

The increase edged out the $47.24 billion that Wall Street had expected, according to a survey by FactSet. Globally, sales at stores open at least a year rose 1.7%, while U.S. comparable store sales increased 1.3%.

CFO Richard McPhail stated that customers continued to engage in smaller projects, leading to broad-based demand across the business.

Neil Saunders of GlobalData pointed out that the number of bigger-ticket projects undertaken remains down, falling by 2.1% over last year, due to concerns around financing and a lack of moving activity.