ATLANTA (AP) — Home Depot is reporting better than expected profit and revenue for the first quarter despite a damp start to 2019.

That inclement weather and an extra week in the previous fiscal year dampened the home improvement retailer's comparable store sales.

Comparable store sales, a key gauge of a retailer's health, increased 2.5%, which is short of the 4.2% expected, according to Zacks Investment Research. In the U.S., same-store sales climbed 3%.

Despite the bad weather, customers spent more, with the average ticket climbing 2% to $67.31. The number of customer transactions also improved, up 3.8% from a year earlier.

The Atlanta company still foresees fiscal 2019 earnings up about 3.1% from fiscal 2018 to $10.03. It maintains sales will rise by approximately 3.3%.

The home improvement retailer earned $2.51 billion, or $2.27 per diluted share, for the three months ended May 5. That compares with $2.4 billion, or $2.08 per diluted share, a year ago.

That easily beat the $2.16 per share analysts polled by Zacks were calling for.

Revenue rose to $26.38 billion from $24.95 billion, also topping expectations.

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Portions of this story were generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on HD at https://www.zacks.com/ap/HD