The Home Depot, Inc. (NYSE:HD) Shares Sold by L & S Advisors Inc

L & S Advisors Inc decreased its holdings in shares of The Home Depot, Inc. (NYSE:HD) by 5.2% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 7,357 shares of the home improvement retailer’s stock after selling 403 shares during the quarter. L & S Advisors Inc’s holdings in Home Depot were worth $2,862,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Home Depot during the 4th quarter valued at about $5,032,910,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in Home Depot during the fourth quarter worth about $2,212,546,000. Proficio Capital Partners LLC raised its stake in Home Depot by 21,394.9% during the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 2,039,862 shares of the home improvement retailer’s stock worth $793,486,000 after purchasing an additional 2,030,372 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Home Depot by 0.9% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 95,763,752 shares of the home improvement retailer’s stock valued at $37,251,142,000 after purchasing an additional 875,836 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Amundi grew its stake in shares of Home Depot by 8.6% in the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 7,554,880 shares of the home improvement retailer’s stock valued at $2,925,498,000 after buying an additional 599,490 shares during the period. 70.86% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently weighed in on HD. KGI Securities raised shares of Home Depot to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, March 3rd. Telsey Advisory Group reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $455.00 price objective on shares of Home Depot in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on Home Depot from $450.00 to $475.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, February 10th. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their target price on Home Depot from $431.00 to $424.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. Finally, Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $440.00 price target on shares of Home Depot in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-two have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Home Depot has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $435.85.

Home Depot Trading Down 1.3 %

NYSE HD opened at $357.86 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $389.98 and its 200 day moving average price is $398.80. The Home Depot, Inc. has a 12 month low of $323.77 and a 12 month high of $439.37. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.65, a current ratio of 1.13 and a quick ratio of 0.31. The company has a market capitalization of $355.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.31, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.03 and a beta of 1.09.

Home Depot (NYSE:HD) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 25th. The home improvement retailer reported $3.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.04 by $0.09. The company had revenue of $39.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $39.15 billion. Home Depot had a return on equity of 452.60% and a net margin of 9.45%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 14.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $2.82 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that The Home Depot, Inc. will post 15.13 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Home Depot Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 27th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 13th were given a dividend of $2.30 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 13th. This is a positive change from Home Depot’s previous quarterly dividend of $2.25. This represents a $9.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.57%. Home Depot’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 61.66%.

About Home Depot

The Home Depot, Inc operates as a home improvement retailer in the United States and internationally. It sells various building materials, home improvement products, lawn and garden products, and décor products, as well as facilities maintenance, repair, and operations products. The company also offers installation services for flooring, water heaters, bath, garage doors, cabinets, cabinet makeovers, countertops, sheds, furnaces and central air systems, and windows.