Home Depot Inc. (NYSE: HD) is scheduled to release its third-quarter financial results before the markets open on Tuesday. Consensus estimates from Thomson Reuters call for $2.26 in EPS and $26.26 billion in revenue. The same period of last year reportedly had $1.84 in EPS and $25.03 billion in revenue.
In its most recent earnings report, Home Depot noted a sharp reversal from its first-quarter results, with same-store sales increasing 8.0% globally and 8.1% in the United States. Same-store sales growth badly missed estimates in the first quarter, coming in at 4.2% globally and just 3.9% in the United States. The second quarter produced far better results.
Second-quarter results were good enough that the company now says it expects full-year sales growth of 7.0% and same-store sales growth of around 5.3%. Home Depot also raised its full-year EPS estimate from $9.31 to $9.42.
A tight and expensive housing market does not encourage current homeowners to trade up. Instead, they tend to stay put and remodel or renovate. There is little indication that this situation will change this year, and that is good news for Home Depot.
Excluding Monday’s move, Home Depot has outperformed the broad markets, with its stock up 14% in the past 52 weeks. In just 2018 alone, the stock is actually down 2%.
A few analysts weighed in on Home Depot ahead of the results:
- Morgan Stanley has an Overweight rating with a $200 price target.
- Wells Fargo has an Outperform rating with a $220 price target.
- Credit Suisse has a Neutral rating with a $204 price target.
- Jefferies has a Buy rating with a $228 price target.
- Piper Jaffray has a Hold rating with a $203 price target.
Shares of Home Depot were last seen down 1% at $183.36, in a 52-week range of $163.15 to $215.43. The stock has a consensus analyst price target of $212.10.
Thank you for reading! Have some feedback for us?
Contact the 24/7 Wall St. editorial team.