Home Depot Inc. Lifts Its Outlook -- Again -- After Hurricanes Boost Results

Natural disasters depress sales results for most retailers, but they have the opposite impact on Home Depot's (NYSE: HD) operations. That helps explain why the home improvement giant recently posted its best sales growth result in years. Customers flocked to its stores during rebuilding and recovery efforts in the wake of hurricanes, wildfires, and earthquakes that impacted the U.S. and Mexico during the third quarter.

Here's how the big-picture results stacked up against the prior year :

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Source: Fool.com