Struggling Canadian home improvement retailer and distributor Rona Inc reported a bigger quarterly profit on Tuesday as it cut costs, but competition and cooling new home construction hurt sales.The Boucherville, Quebec-based company, facing a raft of challenges as it works through an aggressive restructuring plan, said its results were helped by on-target cost savings, but revenue declined on store closures and a sales slump at established stores.The company noted ground breaking on new single-family homes shrank significantly in its home province in the three months ending Sept. 29. Rona earns nearly 50 percent of its revenue in Quebec.Rona, which also announced a share buy-back on Tuesday that helped support the stock, has underperformed its peers in a tough market dominated by big U.S. retailers like Home Depot Inc and Lowe's Co Ltd.
The Home Depot, Inc. (The Home Depot) is a home improvement retailer. Shares of HD traded higher by 1.01% or $0.76/share to $76.13. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $60.21 and as high as $81.56. On average, 7469840 shares of HD exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 4218526.
RONA inc. is a Canada-based distributor and retailer of hardware, home improvement and gardening products. Shares of RON traded higher by 3.08% or $0.37/share to $12.38. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $9.69 and as high as $12.45. On average, 142145 shares of RON.TO exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 76292.
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