Cubic Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Home Depot Inc (NYSE:HD) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund bought 6,650 shares of the home improvement retailer’s stock, valued at approximately $1,143,000.
A number of other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in HD. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Home Depot by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 82,981,380 shares of the home improvement retailer’s stock worth $17,189,593,000 after acquiring an additional 278,763 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc raised its holdings in Home Depot by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc now owns 82,981,380 shares of the home improvement retailer’s stock valued at $17,189,593,000 after buying an additional 278,763 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its holdings in Home Depot by 2.8% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 29,811,794 shares of the home improvement retailer’s stock valued at $6,175,512,000 after buying an additional 813,882 shares during the last quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. raised its holdings in Home Depot by 4.3% during the 3rd quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 9,871,732 shares of the home improvement retailer’s stock valued at $2,044,929,000 after buying an additional 407,767 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital International Investors raised its holdings in Home Depot by 129.2% during the 3rd quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 7,080,765 shares of the home improvement retailer’s stock valued at $1,466,780,000 after buying an additional 3,991,462 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.81% of the company’s stock.
A number of equities research analysts recently commented on HD shares. Edward Jones upgraded shares of Home Depot from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 13th. DZ Bank lowered shares of Home Depot from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 27th. Citigroup lowered their price target on shares of Home Depot from $224.00 to $218.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 1st. Deutsche Bank upped their price target on shares of Home Depot from $200.00 to $208.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 27th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of Home Depot from $200.00 to $210.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company. The company presently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $204.47.
Shares of Home Depot stock opened at $204.86 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.11, a quick ratio of 0.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 17.68. The firm has a market cap of $224.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.71, a P/E/G ratio of 1.75 and a beta of 1.09. Home Depot Inc has a 12-month low of $158.09 and a 12-month high of $215.43.
Home Depot (NYSE:HD) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 26th. The home improvement retailer reported $2.25 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the Zacks’ consensus estimate of $2.16 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $26.49 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $26.57 billion. Home Depot had a net margin of 10.28% and a return on equity of 1,441.05%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 10.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.69 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that Home Depot Inc will post 10.08 earnings per share for the current year.
The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 14th were given a dividend of $1.36 per share. This is an increase from Home Depot’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.03. This represents a $5.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.66%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 13th. Home Depot’s payout ratio is presently 55.01%.
Home Depot announced that its board has authorized a share buyback program on Tuesday, February 26th that allows the company to repurchase $15.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the home improvement retailer to repurchase up to 6.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are generally a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.
In other news, EVP Ann Marie Campbell sold 5,450 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $184.67, for a total value of $1,006,451.50. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 51,030 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,423,710.10. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Edward P. Decker sold 23,744 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $182.93, for a total transaction of $4,343,489.92. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 86,813 shares in the company, valued at $15,880,702.09. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 41,194 shares of company stock worth $7,553,141. Insiders own 0.25% of the company’s stock.
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