The company remains one of the top consumer discretionary stocks to buy on Wall Street, and Home Depot is into its sales sweet spot for the year. Between the spring cleaning activity and the increase in Americans once again looking for new homes, the time is ripe for investors looking to own a top retail stock. Home Depot is also becoming a darling of some quantitative hedge funds, as some see the stock as way undervalued on an intrinsic basis.
In addition to the company’s already huge domestic presence, some Wall Street analysts have pointed to the recent troubles at Sears Holdings and Lumber Liquidators as even more solid impetus for the home improvement giant. Some have speculated that the company may have an acquisition eye cast toward the latter.
In the previous earnings report, the company guided 2015 sales growth of approximately 3.5% to 4.7% and same-store sales growth in the range of 3.3% to 4.5%. Diluted EPS is forecast to grow by 8.5% to 10.5% (to a range of $5.11 to $5.17), including the effect of a $4.5 billion stock buyback. Consensus estimates call for 2015 EPS of $5.23 on revenues of $86.46 billion.
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To top off the 2014 fiscal year, Home Depot also raised its dividend by 25.5% from a quarterly rate of $0.47 to a new rate of $0.59 per share. The company also authorized a new $18 billion share repurchase program that it expects to use by the end of fiscal 2017.
Shares of Home Depot were up 1% at $114.44 late on Monday. The stock has a consensus analyst price target of $122.96 and a 52-week trading range of $76.37 to $117.99.
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