ATLANTA AP – The Home Depot Inc., the nation’s largest home improvement store chain, reported Tuesday a 5.3 percent jump in second-quarter earnings on a strong rise in sales. However, it said its earnings growth for the year will be at the low end of its previous guidance.
Still, its shares rose as the company said it would invest $350 million more during the second half of the year to accelerate its store modernization program. The company also began reporting same-store sales again. Its previous decision to stop reporting the common retail metric, which compares sales at stores open at least a year, caught some on Wall Street by surprise.
