According to Gayathree Ganesan of Reuters, Home Depot had a better than expected quarterly profit and sales as the US housing market is heating up. The news is good news for the economy and the stock has moved from $110 to $145 in the quarter. The stock is creating new highs and the question is will it continue to?

Home Depot is gaining share in a number of high value categories including appliances. If you think about the average person walking around Home Depot; one in 5 or 20% of the sales is over $900. Customers were spending more on flooring and appliances. The company is expecting a growth in sales of 4.6% to become a $100 billion in sales.

Last quarter, the same stores sales increased 5.8% beating the expected 3.8% growth and the company earned $1.44 a share ahead of the estimated $1.34. Home Depot’s board increased the quarterly divided to 89 cents from 69 cents a share.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, Home Depot is doing many things right in terms of execution as well as growing with the increased in home sales. Most of us will walk through the store at least once during the spring – summer or fall and you can remember the $900 transaction. If you are a regular are people spending close to $1,000 or more when they leave? If they are, then one can expect another good quarter. Every store or industry has some benchmark data that as a shareholder you can look to see if they are doing what they are suppose to. Ensure you know your companies benchmarks.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.