Home Depot's same-store sales surge in final quarter of 2019

Home Depot reported a better-than-expected fourth quarter with strong comparable-store sales. The home improvement retailer also boosted its quarterly dividend by 10%.

Shares rose 2% in premarket trading Tuesday.

For the three months ended Feb. 2, Home Depot Inc. earned $2.48 billion, or $2.28 per share. That's better than the per-share earnings of $2.11 projected by industry analysts, according to a survey by Zacks Investment Research. A year earlier the Atlanta company earned $2.34 billion, or $2.09 per share.

Revenue declined to $25.78 billion, from $26.49 billion, but that still topped Wall Street's forecast of $25.75 billion. Sales at stores open at least a year rose 5.2%, which was also better than analysts had expected. Those sales climbed 5.3% in the U.S.

Home Depot anticipates earnings this year of about $10.45 per share, far better than analysts projections of $10.08. It expects revenue growth of approximately 3.5% to 4%.