By Denny Jacob

Home Depot posted higher-than-expected sales in its latest quarter as certain home improvement projects continued to take off despite a higher interest rate environment.

The home improvement retailer recorded earnings of about $3 billion, or $3.02 a share, for the fiscal fourth quarter ended Feb. 2, compared with $2.80 billion, or $2.82 a share, in the prior-year period.

Stripping out certain one-time items, earnings came in at $3.13 a share. Analysts polled by FactSet had expected $3.04 a share.

Sales grew 14% to $39.70 billion from $34.79 billion. Analysts polled by FactSet expected $39.15 billion.

Comparable sales in the quarter edged up 0.8%, and comparable sales in the U.S. increased 1.3%.

Chief Executive Ted Decker said fourth-quarter results exceeded Home Depot's expectations as more customers looked to home improvement projects despite ongoing pressure on large remodeling projects.

For fiscal 2025, Home Depot guided for sales growth of about 2.8%, comparable sales growth of about 1%, and adjusted earnings per share to decline about 2% from $15.24 in fiscal 2024. Analysts polled by FactSet expect sales of $164.08 billion, which would equate to a 2.9% increase from $159.51 billion in fiscal 2025 sales, and $15.65 a share in adjusted earnings, which would equate to a 2.7% increase from adjusted earnings of $15.24 a share in fiscal 2025.

Home Depot also announced its board approved increasing its quarterly dividend to $2.30 a share, a 2.2% increase from the current dividend of $2.25 a share. The dividend, which equates to an annual dividend of $9.20 a share, is payable on March 27 to shareholders of record on the close of business on March 13.

Write to Denny Jacob at denny.jacob@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 25, 2025 06:09 ET (11:09 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2025 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.