(Reuters) -Home Depot Inc beat analysts’ estimates for quarterly same-store sales on Tuesday, helped by higher prices and steady demand for home improvement tools from professional builders.
The company’s shares were up 2.3% in premarket trading.
With mortgage rates more than doubling since the beginning of the year, customers are sticking to their current lower-mortgage homes and renovating them instead of buying new houses, bolstering demand for tools and fittings at Home Depot.
While home prices have logged their second straight monthly decline in August, raising concerns around consumer confidence to invest in their homes, analysts have said renovation activity has remained healthy and spending on remodeling still remained near all-time highs.
The company also reaffirmed its fiscal 2022 comparable sales growth forecast of about 3%.
Comparable sales at the largest U.S. home improvement chain rose 4.3% in the third quarter, compared with estimates of a 3.1% increase, according to Refinitiv IBES data.
(Reporting by Deborah Sophia in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta)
