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Home Depot feels the wind at its back in third quarter

ATLANTA (AP) – Home Depot beat out Wall Street expectations for the third quarter thanks in part to repairs necessitated by Harvey and Irma, a pair of hurricanes that caused widespread damage to homes.

The Atlanta company raised its outlook for the year for some of the same reasons.

Home Depot Inc. earned $2.17 billion, or $1.84 per share, for the three months ended Oct. 29. That’s three cents better than expected, according to a survey by Zacks Investment Research. The company last year during the same period earned $1.97 billion, or $1.60 per share.

Revenue also rose to $25.03 billion, from $23.15 billion, to beat analyst projections of $24.52 billion.

Sales at stores open at least a year, a key gauge of a retailer’s health, rose 7.9 percent. In the U.S., they climbed 7.7 percent.

The company attributed about $282 million in same-store sales growth to the hurricanes.

The retailer now anticipates 2017 earnings will rise about 14 percent from a year earlier, to $7.36 per share. Revenue is now expected to be up about 6.3 percent, with same-store sales rising approximately 6.5 percent.

Analysts polled by FactSet predict full-year earnings of $7.33 per share.