Retail

Why Home Depot Earnings Could Be the Silver Lining for Retail Stocks

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Chris Lange
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Home Depot Inc. (NYSE: HD) is scheduled to release its most recent quarterly results before the markets open on Tuesday. The consensus estimates from Thomson Reuters call for $2.21 in earnings per share (EPS) and revenue of $27.8 billion. In the fiscal second-quarter of last year, EPS of $1.97 and $26.47 billion in revenue were reported.

So far in 2017, Home Depot has outperformed the broad markets with the stock up close to 15% year to date. Over the past year the stock is up only about 13%. This performance easily puts Home Depot in the top half of the Dow stocks this year.

According to HomeAdvisor, Home Depot has had an amazingly strong year, and it expects the second-quarter results to again show exceptional strength. This is in line with the conclusion from all HomeAdvisor’s recent studies on improvement trends, showing that homeowners are increasingly willing to open their wallets when it comes to investing in their homes.

Home improvement has been the silver lining in the cloudy retail sector. There was some concerned buzz recently when Amazon announced that it would be selling appliances in cooperation with Kenmore, but the outlook for Home Depot remains as strong as ever, according to the firm.

HomeAdvisor said in its recent report:

Comparable store sales growth in the U.S. has been running strong, in the mid-single-digits, and it seems likely to stay in that range.  Mind you, that is far faster than the growth of sales in general retail. Home Depot sells a lot to the plucky do-it-your-selfer, but much of the recent boom has been driven by people hiring out work.  Home Depot also said in their last report that they are seeing growth in PRO sales that is twice that of DIY.

ALSO READ: 7 Dumb Mistakes to Avoid When Buying a Home

A few analysts weighed in on Home Depot ahead of the earnings report:

  • Jefferies has a Buy rating with a $182 price target.
  • Sanford Bernstein has a Market Perform rating with a $152 target.
  • Oppenheimer has a Buy rating.
  • RBC has an Outperform rating with a $176 price target.
  • SunTrust has a Hold rating and a $157 price target.
  • Barclays has an Overweight rating with a $165 price target.
  • Morgan Stanley has an Overweight rating with a $173 price target.
  • Wedbush has a Neutral rating.

Shares of Home Depot closed at $154.88 on Friday, with a consensus analyst price target of $171.27 and a 52-week range of $119.20 to $160.86.

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