Home Depot profits beat estimates as sales miss

ATLANTA — Home Depot reported its Q2 net income was $3.48 billion, or $3.17 per share, compared with $3.51 billion ($3.05 a share) for the comparable period last year. Those numbers missed analyst expectations of $3.08 a share. Sales rose by 1.2% to $30.84 billion, compared to $30.46 billion a year ago but fell short of the expected $30.99 billion. Same-store sales increased by 3% overall and by 3.1% in the U.S., missing forecasts of 3.5% growth.