Home Depot Inc (NYSE:HD) stock fell 4.62% (As on May 18, 11:33:57 AM UTC-4, Source: Google Finance) after the company raised its full-year outlook and reported strong quarterly earnings, fueled by the company’s strongest first-quarter sales on record, an early signal that the retailer is so far weathering inflation. The home improvement retailer reported fiscal first-quarter net income of $4.23 billion, up from $4.15 billion, a year earlier. U.S. same-store sales rose 1.7%, despite domestic same-store sales declines in March and April as the company faced tougher comparisons against last year’s stimulus check sales boost and an earlier spring. A year ago, the company reported U.S. same-store sales growth of 29.9%. Customer transactions fell 8.2% but were offset by higher sales amid inflationary pricing. The company’s average ticket climbed 11.4%, and customers were still willing to trade up for premium products. Transactions of at least $1,000 increased 12.4% in the quarter. At the end of the first quarter, the Company operated a total of 2,316 retail stores in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, 10 Canadian provinces and Mexico. Sales to professionals outpaced those for do-it-yourself projects. Kitchen and bathroom installation and building materials were among the categories that saw double-digit growth

HD in the first quarter of FY 22 has reported the adjusted earnings per share of $4.09, beating the analysts’ estimates for the adjusted earnings per share of $3.68, based on a survey of analysts by Refinitiv. The company had reported the adjusted revenue growth of 3.8 percent to $38.91 billion in the first quarter of FY 22, beating the analysts’ estimates for revenue of $36.72 billion. Same-store sales increased 2.2% in the quarter.

For the fiscal year 2022, the retailer is now expecting sales to increase about 3% and earnings per share growth in the mid single digits. The company previously forecast “slightly positive” sales growth and an earnings per share increase in the low single digits. Wall Street was expecting revenue growth of 1.8% and earnings per share growth of 3.6% for fiscal 2022. The company for FY 2022 expects operating margin to be of approximately 15.4 percent, Net interest expense to be of approximately $1.6 billion and tax rate to be of approximately 24.6 percent

Additionally, rising interest rates could result in a slowdown in the hot housing market. So far, however, Home Depot executives said consumers who are considering a move are now more tempted to stay in their current low fixed-rate mortgages and remodel their homes instead.