Home Depot Inc. (NYSE: HD) is set to release its most recent quarterly report before the markets open on Tuesday. Although retail has been one of the worst performing industries this year, there seems to be a silver lining and that is home improvement chains. Both Home Depot and Lowe’s have outperformed, or at least kept pace with the markets, as opposed to falling off a cliff like most other retailers.
Looking at the numbers, Home Depot has outperformed the U.S. broad markets this year, with the stock up 15% in this time. 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 in 2017.
As for the earnings report, the consensus estimates from Thomson Reuters are $2.21 in earnings per share (EPS) and $27.8 billion in revenue. The same period of last year reportedly had EPS of $1.97 and $26.47 billion in revenue.
Coming into the report, Home Depot has had an incredibly strong year, and second-quarter results could prove to be very strong. While most retailers make most of their earnings in the fourth quarter, home improvement stores’ big season is usually in the spring and summer time.
There has been some concern surrounding Amazon and its move into multiple new industries. In this case, Amazon announced that it would be selling appliances in cooperation with Kenmore, but the outlook for Home Depot remains as strong as ever. Also these appliances make up only a small portion of Home Depot’s overall sales, not to mention these devices tend to be bought in store as opposed to online.
In a recent report, HomeAdvisor commented on the current state of Home Depot:
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.
Ahead of the earnings report, a few analysts weighed in on Home Depot:
- Barclays has an Overweight rating with a $165 price target.
- Jefferies has a Buy rating with a $182 price target.
- Morgan Stanley has an Overweight rating with a $173 target.
- Oppenheimer has a Buy rating.
- RBC has an Outperform rating and a $176 price target.
- Sanford Bernstein has a Market Perform rating with a $152 target.
- SunTrust has a Hold rating and a $157 price target.
- Wedbush has a Neutral rating.
Shares of Home Depot were last seen down about 0.5% at $154.20, with a consensus analyst price target of $171.27 and a 52-week range of $119.20 to $160.86.
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