UPDATE: Home Depot Q3 Profit Beats Estimates

The Home Depot HD reported a better-than-expected profit for the third quarter. The Atlanta, Georgia-based company posted a quarterly profit of $1.54 billion, or $1.15 per share, versus a year-ago profit of $1.35 billion, or $0.95 per share. The latest quarter results reflected a pretax gain on sale of $100 million related to the sale of a portion of its equity ownership in HD Supply Holdings and pretax net expenses of $28 million related to its data breach. The company said fiscal 2014 costs related to the breach may include liabilities to payment card networks for reimbursement of credit card fraud and card reissuance costs. Its net sales climbed 5.4% to $20.52 billion. However, analysts were expecting earnings of $1.13 per share on revenue of $20.47 billion. Home Depot's overall same-store sales gained 5.2% in the quarter, while U.S. same-store sales rose 5.8%. Total customer transactions surged 3.2% in the period, while average ticket rose 2.3%. "During the quarter we saw strong performance across all geographies led by growth in transactions and continued strength in the core of the store," said Craig Menear, CEO and president. The company maintained its earnings forecast for the full year. Home Depot shares fell 0.29% to $97.75 in pre-market trading.