Home Depot CFO Says They Were Surprised By Contractors

Home Depot Inc. HD is up almost 4 percent on Tuesday afternoon, after it reported strong results for the fourth quarter (beating all estimates) and raised its quarterly dividend. Craig Menear, Chairman, CEO and President of the company commented: “We had a strong finish to the year, as strength across the store, the recovering U.S. housing market and solid execution aided our business in 2014.” However, he left one factor out of his explanation:  the harsh winter.

Related Link: Home Depot Tops Q4 Views, Shares Gain

Apparently, the crude winter helped the world’s largest home improvements retailerduring the holiday season, as people (especially in the Midwest and Northeast) concurred en masse to acquire snowblowers, shovels, rock salt and other related winter items, like water heaters.

Another thesis points to the recuperation of the U.S. housing market, which may have incentivized do-it-yourself remodels, even in spite of the bad weather.

Surprised By The Pros

Vice President and CFO Carol Tome told The Street that the management is thrilled with what they saw in their pro-related categories (double-digit same store sales growth across most pro-related segments), and even confessed being a bit surprised. “Oftentimes as the year winds down, special contractors go on holiday, and are not as busy as in prior periods,” she explained.

However, it was not only pros buying at Home Depot. “The sales strength extended to products usually bought by the average do-it-yourself consumer, too,” The Street reports.

The strength is expected to continue throughout the spring.