Home Depot's Q3 results top Wall Street as pullback in consumer spending eases a bit

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Home Depot continued to deal with a pullback in spending from customers in its fiscal third quarter, but it was less severe than in the past, and its performance beat Wall Street’s expectations

Home Depot continued to deal with a pullback in spending from customers in its fiscal third quarter, but it was less severe than in the past, and its performance beat Wall Street's expectations. The home improvement retailer also boosted its full-year revenue outlook.

Revenue for the Atlanta-based company improved 6.6% to $40.22 billion in the quarter. That topped the $39.31 billion that analysts surveyed by FactSet predicted.

Sales at stores open at least a year, a key gauge of a retailer's health, slipped 1.3%. In the U.S., the figure fell 1.2%. Still, that's a marked improvement from the second quarter, when sales at stores open at least a year declined 3.3% and dropped 3.6% in the U.S.

Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData, was encouraged by some of the data.

“Home Depot is still experiencing a modest revenue decline of 1.2% in its U.S. business. While this comes off the back of a decline in the prior year, it is the shallowest rate of decrease in two years and sends a positive signal that Home Depot may finally be reaching the bottom of its long sales slump and will soon pivot its core business back into growth,” he said in an emailed statement.

Third-quarter customer transactions were nearly flat when compared with the prior-year period, while the amount shoppers spent declined slightly to $88.65 per average ticket from $89.36 a year earlier.

Home improvement retailers like Home Depot have been dealing with homeowners putting off bigger projects due to higher rates and lingering concerns about inflation.

While