Home Depot Inc. (NYSE: HD) is scheduled to release its fiscal first-quarter financial results before the markets open on Tuesday. The consensus estimates are $2.06 in earnings per share (EPS) on $25.22 billion in revenue. The same period of last year reportedly had EPS of $1.67 and $23.89 billion in revenue.

Back in April, Home Depot announced that it was hiring roughly 1,000 new technology professionals in 2018 at its primary technology centers in Atlanta, Austin and Dallas to support initiatives related to its $11.1 billion three-year strategic investment plan.

In December 2017, the company announced investments related to its store and online shopping experience, supply chain and delivery capabilities, and associate and workforce management systems. Many of these initiatives require advanced software engineering, system engineering, UX design and product management.

On the other hand, Home Depot’s health is largely tied to the real estate market. At this point, that market is strong in the United States, based on housing starts and home sales, both new and existing. Housing could be hit by higher interest rates. However, that is more likely to happen if the Federal Reserve raises rates later in the year.

Over the past 52 weeks, Home Depot has outperformed the broad markets, with its stock up about 22%. However, in just 2018 alone, the stock is only flat.

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

• Wells Fargo has an Outperform rating with a $205 price target.
• Gabelli has a Buy rating with a $206 target price.
• Morgan Stanley has a Buy rating and a $210 price target.
• Loop Capital has a Hold rating with a $187 price target.

Shares of Home Depot were last seen trading at $191.00, with a consensus analyst price target of $211.24 and a 52-week range of $144.25 to $207.61.

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