ATLANTA (AP) — Home Depot's fiscal fourth-quarter net income surged 32 percent, helped by an extra week and strong U.S. sales.
The home improvement retailer also said Tuesday that it will buy back $17 billion of its common stock and boosted its quarterly dividend by 34 percent.
For the period ended Feb. 3, Home Depot Inc. earned $1.02 billion, or 68 cents per share. That compares with $774 million, or 50 cents per share, a year ago. Analysts expected 64 cents per share.
Revenue climbed 14 percent to $18.25 billion from $16.01 billion.
Analysts expected revenue of $17.72 billion.
For fiscal 2013, the Atlanta company anticipates earnings of $3.37 per share. Revenue is expected to climb about 2 percent, implying $76.21 billion.
Wall Street forecasts earnings of $3.50 per share on revenue of $76.24 billion.
