U.S. – The Home Depot, headquartered in Atlanta, GA, and the world’s leading home improvement retailer, reported third quarter sales of USD 23.2 billion, up 6.1% from the comparable period in 2015. 

Year-to-date net sales were USD 72.4 billion, rising from the year ago period by 7.2%.

The second largest retailer of the segment in North America, The Lowe’s Companies, with headquarters in Mooresville, NC, reported an even larger sales growth in 3Q16, up 9% as net sales reached USD 15.7 billion compared to USD 14.4 billion in the same period prior year. Net sales for the first nine months were USD 49.2 billion, up from USD 45.8 billion in 2015.

Quarterly net earnings for The Home Depot were USD 2.0 billion compared with net earnings of USD 1.7 billion in the same period of fiscal 2015. For the nine months, net earnings were USD 6.2 billion over USD 5.5 billion in the same period in 2015. At the end of the third quarter, the Company operated a total of 2,276 retail stores in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, 10 Canadian provinces and Mexico.

Lowe’s quarterly net earnings were USD 379 million down from USD 736 million in same period 2015. Year-to-date net earnings were USD 2.4 billion compared to 2015 net earnings of USD 2.5 billion in the same period.  As of October 28, 2016, Lowe’s operated 2,119 home improvement and hardware stores in the United States, Canada and Mexico representing 212.8 million square feet of retail selling space.