Home Depot Inc outperformed rival Lowe's Cos Inc in same-store sales for the ninth quarter in a row, and the No. 1 home improvement chain raised its profit forecast for the fiscal year.

The news came on Monday, a day after Lowe's reported weaker-than-expected quarterly sales and cut its fiscal-year outlook for the second time in three months.

Home Depot still expects fiscal-year sales to be up about 2.5 percent. It forecast earnings of $2.34 a share excluding future stock repurchases, up from a prior forecast of $2.24.

In the second quarter, Home Depot's same-store sales, or sales at stores open at least a year, rose 4.3 percent globally, including a 3.5 percent rise in U.S. same-store sales, making it the ninth consecutive quarter that it has outshone its smaller rival.

Lowe's same-store sales fell 0.3 percent in the quarter.

Home Depot also beat estimates on quarterly profit as demand picked up for seasonal goods after a soft start to the spring selling season. Storm-related repairs also helped the retailer's sales.

Its second-quarter net income rose to $1.36 billion, or 86 cents a share, from $1.19 billion, or 72 cents a share, a year earlier.

Analysts on average were expecting 83 cents a share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Sales rose 4.2 percent to $20.23 billion, beating analysts' average estimate of $19.96 billion.

(Reporting by Dhanya Skariachan; editing by John Wallace)