HomeDepot posts
FeedPosted May 20th 2009 10:30AM by Laurie Pasternack (RSS feed)
Filed under: Analyst reports, Analyst upgrades and downgrades, Home Depot (HD), McDonald's (MCD), Netflix, Inc. (NFLX), Nokia Corp. (NOK), Colgate-Palmolive (CL), Procter and Gamble (PG), Lowe's Cos (LOW), BP p.l.c. ADS (BP), Analyst initiations
Analyst upgrades:
- Barclays believes Procter & Gamble's (NYSE: PG) portfolio mix provides better leverage to stabilizing macro trends. The firm upgraded shares to Overweight from Equal weight and raised its target to $60 from $56. Note the firm downgraded Colgate (NYSE: CL) to Equal Weight from Overweight.
- Deutsche Bank upgraded McDonald's (NYSE: MCD) to Buy from Hold as it finds the risk/reward on shares compelling at current levels and sees upcoming catalysts from McCafe and easing commodity pressures. The firm raised its target price to $65 from $60.
- FBR Capital upgraded Talbots (NYSE: TLB) to Outperform from Market Perform to reflect an attractive risk/reward, reduced risk of a bankruptcy, and merchandise improvements. The firm raised its target price to $4 from $2.
- Nokia (NYSE: NOK) was upgraded to Buy from Hold at Deutsche Bank.
- Analog Devices (NYSE: ADI) was upgraded to Neutral from Underperform at Baird.
Continue reading Analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations: PG, MCD, TLB, CL, JTX, HD, IPCM, MYRG and NFLX
Posted May 19th 2009 2:40PM by Michael Fowlkes (RSS feed)
Filed under: Major movement, Earnings reports, Products and services, Competitive strategy, Home Depot (HD), Employees, Market matters, Lowe's Cos (LOW), Housing, Recession, Financial Crisis
Home Depot (NYSE:
HD) reported its
first quarter numbers today, topping Wall Street estimates, but cautioning that the company's business remains under pressure from the
current housing crisis.
Ahead of today's earnings report, analysts had been expecting to see Home Depot, the nations largest home improvement retailer, show earnings of 29 cents per share for its first quarter, but the company surprised to the upside with 35 cents per share. Sounds like good news, but Wall Street has been selling the stock off so far in today's action.
Continue reading Home Depot (HD) tops estimates but remains under pressure
Posted May 18th 2009 3:40PM by Steven Mallas (RSS feed)
Filed under: Earnings reports, Home Depot (HD), Lowe's Cos (LOW)

So, the story doesn't start off so well.
Lowe's (NYSE:
LOW) issued its
Q1 numbers earlier today, and right off the bat, beginning at the top line, you see that net sales declined over 1%. Then you notice that profit on a dollar basis plunged over 20%. Earnings per share? That also took a dive of over 20%.
Then you look at the stock. And you say to yourself, "what's going on?" As I write this, with less than three hours to go in the trading day, shares of Lowe's are trading almost 10% higher! On excellent volume, too. As you might have thought, an earnings beat was lurking somewhere in the plot of this particular tale. Lowe's earned $0.32 per share in Q1. According to Trey Thoelcke's earnings preview, the market thought that only $0.25 could be achieved. This differential is helping to fuel the buying.
Continue reading Lowe's rises after Q1 beat, but don't buy high
Posted May 14th 2009 5:00PM by Sheldon Liber (RSS feed)
Filed under: Competitive strategy, Home Depot (HD), Lowe's Cos (LOW), Serious Money, Stocks to Buy, Obama Picks, Best Stocks for 2009

Hopefully all the people who thought the world was coming to an end have found good counseling while the rest of us get on with our business. This is not to make light of those that are struggling to find employment, or trying to rebuild their retirement portfolios -- this is a brutal economy indeed.
The most important thing, though, is that the stock market has improved recently, "bear rally" or not, because it has allowed investors to see that the market can go up as well as down. The most reliable prediction for the future of the stock market has always been "it will fluctuate".
My favorite motto comes from my time as a Cub Scout: be prepared. If you do not have a watchlist then you are not prepared. Yesterday I started this conversation with
Serious Money: Keep your eyes on UPS and FDX.Continue reading Serious Money: Home Depot & Lowe's belong on your watchlist
Posted Mar 25th 2009 8:00AM by Steven Mallas (RSS feed)
Filed under: Earnings reports, Home Depot (HD), Bed Bath and Beyond (BBBY), Lowe's Cos (LOW)
Home-products retailer Williams-Sonoma (NYSE: WSM), which runs such retail brands as Pottery Barn and West Elm in addition to its namesake chain, issued Q4 numbers on Tuesday. Well, they weren't spectacular. Surprised? No, I'm sure you weren't. I mean, when you sell stuff for homes, you've got to expect that you're going to see some weakness. And there's plenty of it here.
Revenues decreased almost 27% during the quarter, and earnings per share on an adjusted basis dropped over 70% to 31 cents. That beat estimates of 16 cents per share, according to Reuters' analysts, but forgive me if I don't jump up and down over that performance. And what about same-store sales? They were mighty bad. On an overall basis, they went down by over 22%.
Continue reading Williams-Sonoma beats expectations; its stock is strong but expensive
Posted Jan 26th 2009 3:30PM by Peter Cohan (RSS feed)
Filed under: Bad news, Pfizer (PFE), General Motors (GM), Home Depot (HD), Caterpillar (CAT), Sprint Nextel Corp (S)
Ten days ago, companies around the world canned 40,000 workers. Today CEOs around the world upped the ante -- firing 62,000 people in a day. Can 100,000 layoffs in a single day be far away?
Here are eight companies contributing to today's casualties:
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-
-
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8,000 from the expected merger of the pharmaceutical makers
Pfizer, Inc. (NYSE:
PFE) and
Wyeth (NYSE:
WYE)
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7,000 at European banking and insurance group ING;
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6,000 at Philips, the electronics company; and
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3,500 at steel maker Corus.
Continue reading 62,000 global layoffs today
Posted Jan 26th 2009 10:10AM by Elizabeth Harrow (RSS feed)
Filed under: Forecasts, Home Depot (HD), Employees, DJIA, Housing
Dow component Home Depot Inc. (NYSE: HD) announced today that 7,000 jobs, or roughly 2% of its workforce, will be eliminated as the company shutters its 34-store EXPO Home Design Centers business. The retail chain said that EXPO "has not performed well financially and is not expected to anytime soon. Even during the recent housing boom, it was not a strong business. It has weakened significantly as the demand for big ticket design and decor projects has declined in the current economic environment."
Two thousand of the job cuts will stem from back-office reductions and a 10% haircut to the officers' ranks. Additionally, HD says it's freezing the salaries of all corporate officers in an attempt to save cash. Also on the chopping block is capex; the retailer said that capital spending will be slashed to about $1 billion in the coming fiscal year.
The changes to HD's payroll will result in about $532 million in restructuring costs, with $390 million affecting the recently concluded fourth quarter. However, the company backed its fiscal-year forecast. Sales and earnings per share are expected to decline by 8% and 24%, respectively, excluding charges.
Happily for the housing-dependent retailer, investors today seem encouraged by its cost-cutting moves. HD shares opened on a gain of about 4%.
Elizabeth Harrow is an analyst and financial writer in the research department at Schaeffer's Investment Research. She is featured in the video series Schaeffer's Daily Q&A on SchaeffersResearch.com.
Posted Jan 20th 2009 3:50PM by Sheldon Liber (RSS feed)
Filed under: Home Depot (HD), Lowe's Cos (LOW), Stocks to Buy, Housing, Recession, Obama Picks, Best Stocks for 2009

President Obama is speaking as I type this post. He is making many promises, and I believe he will make every effort to see them through to the best of his ability.
Regardless of his successes and failures in the coming years, we now have the focus of Washington and Wall Street working on preventing us from slipping into a depression and guiding us out of a year-old recession. Main Street is also doing its share to correct past mistakes, and they are making the biggest sacrifices.
These sacrifices come in the form of lower wages, cutting back on spending, living on fewer resources than they may have had available to them only a short while ago. We go on this journey together and many conjecture that things will get worse before they get better. I think this is only partially true. Unemployment appears to be rising but most of our problems seems to be known to us even if not resolved.
Continue reading Obama Stock Picks: Lowe's (LOW) and The Home Depot (HD)
Posted Jan 8th 2009 1:21PM by Zac Bissonnette (RSS feed)
Filed under: Home Depot (HD), Marketing and advertising
Home Depot (NYSE: HD) is ending its 16-year old program that supported U.S. Olympians.
The Olympic Jobs Opportunities program provided part-time work, flexible hours and full-time benefits to 600 athletes who went on to win 145 medals. Spokeswoman Jean Neimi told (subscription required) The Wall Street Journal that "At this economic time, we are looking more closely at all our programs and marketing sponsorships. . . This is being done with some sadness."
The program cost the company about $15 million to $20 million over four years, but seems to have been a successful marketing tool, and the Olympians were featured prominently in Home Depot ads.
This seems like a budget cut that comes at the expense of some pretty bad publicity, and it suggests that Home Depot is doing even worse than most people are already anticipating.
Posted Nov 18th 2008 1:00PM by Steven Mallas (RSS feed)
Filed under: Earnings reports, Home Depot (HD), Sears Holdings (SHLD), Lowe's Cos (LOW)
Well, seems like Lowe's Companies, Ic. (NYSE: LOW) did much better than expected during the third quarter. And I was apparently too pessimistic in my earnings preview. The call was for $0.28 per share. The home-improvement retailer beat expectations by $0.05 per share, according to Thomson Reuters estimates. Hey, I tip my hat to management.
But I wouldn't buy the stock just now (unless, of course, you have a very long-term horizon, are willing to ride out the bear market, and intend on improving your cost basis through dollar-cost-averaging). My reasoning is simple: total sales increased only 1.4%, and same-store sales decreased nearly 6%. It's that bad drop in the comps that really has me worried. All retailers are suffering through lousy comps right now, and I think sales are destined to remain weak.
Yet, the market seems to be saying something else to me. Lowe's saw its shares rise over 4% on Monday, on good volume, and on a bad day for the major indexes, too. Is the market saying that all the bad news is priced in? You know, I understand the earnings game and how the market loves it when a business beats estimates, and certainly a $0.05 beat is cool, but I'm not sure that better prices are ahead for those who follow Lowe's and its stock. Consumers just won't be spending enough to justify the buying seen in Lowe's equity yesterday.
Continue reading Lowe's beats earnings in Q3, but I'm not buying
Posted Aug 15th 2008 3:01PM by Elizabeth Harrow (RSS feed)
Filed under: Earnings reports, Home Depot (HD), DJIA, Housing
Amid an unprecedented decline in the housing market and a significant slowdown in consumer spending, Home Depot (NYSE: HD) is in the unenviable position of being a housing-dependent retailer. Not surprisingly, analysts are skeptical ahead of the company's second-quarter earnings report, which is slated to hit the Street next Tuesday, August 19, ahead of the opening bell.
According to Thomson Financial, analysts are expecting HD to report a profit of 61 cents per share for the recently concluded quarter. During the past year, the company's performance in the earnings spotlight has been mixed. First Call reports that Home Depot has exceeded earnings estimates in two of the past four quarters, and fallen short of the Street's mark in the other two reporting periods. Its second-quarter report a year ago was one of the upside surprises; HD beat expectations by five cents per share last August.
However, it doesn't look like brokerage firms are banking on another Street-beating quarter. There have been 3 downward revisions to HD's estimated annual earnings, compared to just 1 upward revision (per First Call). Meanwhile, the average 12-month price target on the shares is $29.53. This target is a premium of 8.6% to the stock's closing price Thursday, but it represents a discount of more than 23% to HD's current annual high. In other words, analysts' expectations for the stock are rather low.
Continue reading Can Home Depot (HD) surprise skeptical analysts with its second-quarter earnings?
Posted Aug 11th 2008 4:17PM by Jon Ogg (RSS feed)
Filed under: After the bell, Amazon.com (AMZN), Home Depot (HD), Sirius Satellite Radio (SIRI), Market matters, Research in Motion (RIMM)

Today was a volatile day in the markets as stocks started out flat to slightly positive early on, went negative, but then came back throughout the day. Traders had no real economic numbers, but oil trading under $115 and gold down another 3% has traders cheering beyond any lagging economic numbers.
Here are today's unofficial closing bell levels:
DJIA: 11,782.35
S&P500: 2,439.95
NASDAQ: 1,305.31
10YR T-Note 4.008% (+0.058%)
Pre-Market Analyst UpgradesPre-Market Analyst DowngradesAmazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ:
AMZN) rose sharply in today's final minutes. An analyst at Citigroup noted that the company
could sell as many as 380,000 units of its Kindle e-book reader this year, which could in turn increase its Audible subscriptions and could raise its e-book sales. Shares were up over 9% at $87.86 in today's final minutes.
Continue reading Closing Bell: Dow up on lower commodity prices; AMZN, HD, SIRI gain
Posted Jul 15th 2008 1:22PM by Brent Archer (RSS feed)
Filed under: Home Depot (HD), Options, Technical Analysis, Economic data
The Home Depot (NYSE:
HD) shares are trying to find their way today as investors digest
Federal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke's testimony on the state of the economy before the Senate Banking Committee. Investors are worried that inflation and weakness in credit markets will continue to drag down the economy and were less than impressed by this morning's
PPI numbers. If you think this stock won't be rising too far in the coming months, then it could be a good time to look at a bearish hedged play on HD.
After hitting a one-year high of $40.75 last July, the stock has hit a new one-year low today. This morning, HD opened at $21.39. So far today the stock has hit a low of $20.76 and a high of $21.69. As of 12:10, HD is trading at $21.47, down $0.06 (-0.3%). The chart for HD looks bearish and steady, while
S&P gives the stock a positive 4 STARS (out of 5) buy rating.
For a bearish hedged play on this stock, I would consider a November bear-call credit spread above the $27.50 range. A bear-call credit spread is an options position that combines the purchase and sale of call options to hedge risk in case the stock doesn't do what you think but still leverage nice returns. For this particular trade, we will make an 11.1% return in four months as long as HD is below $27.50 at November expiration. Home Depot would have to rise by more than 26% before we would start to lose money. Learn more about this type of trade here.
Continue reading Home Depot (HD) fluctuates on economy concerns
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