Home Depot's sales still climbing

Home Depot's sales continue to surge, though same-store sales appeared to come back to earth after a year in which the home improvement chain outperformed expectations repeatedly.

For the three months ended August 1, sales climbed to $41.12 billion from $38.05 billion. Chairman and CEO Craig Menea said in a prepared statement Tuesday that this was the first time the chain surpassed quarterly sales of more than $40 billion.

It also surpassed the $40.71 billion analysts were expecting, according to a survey by Zacks Investment Research.

However, sales at stores open at least a year, a key indicator of a retailer's health, increased 4.5%, and 3.4% in the U.S. Wall Street had expected same-store sales of 5.4% according to FactSet.

Shares fell nearly 4% before the opening bell.

Home improvement stores have been incredibly busy amid the pandemic as people continue to work from home and seek updates and fixes to their houses. Many families also decided that bigger homes, or at least different homes, were a necessity. That has fueled sales at Home Depot.

Home Depot Inc. earned $4.81 billion, or $4.53 per share, in the quarter. That compares with $4.33 billion, or $4.02 per share, a year ago. This beat the $4.43 per share that Wall Street predicted.

The Atlanta company didn't provide a full-year forecast.