The first quarter of 2010 is closed and the results are in. My picks surpassed the primary indices by a large margin. The original story, Chasing Value: 10 Stock Picks for 2010 , was the culmination of a process presented to our readers and finally narrowed down to the select group using final prices from Monday, December 28, 2009.

Continue reading Chasing Value: 2010 Picks Triple Market Returns

Chasing Value: 2010 Picks Triple Market Returns originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 05 Apr 2010 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

You've got to take notice of The Home Depot Inc.'s (HD) fourth quarter. Check out Trey Thoelcke's article devoted to retail earnings published this afternoon. It provides a snapshot of data for the chain. It's impressive.

Besides beating earnings expectations, what most observers should focus on is the fact that this is the first quarter in a very, very long time that has seen appreciation in the same-store sales metric. Not a bad change of pace, huh? Those negative comps were becoming a little boring, quite frankly. Furthermore, the chain actually increased its quarterly dividend payout. This isn't insignificant; it clearly signals, in theory at least, a fundamental shift.

Continue reading Should Home Depot Be Considered After Q4?

Should Home Depot Be Considered After Q4? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 23 Feb 2010 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

During my tenure at BloggingStocks I have expressed my opinion often about the contribution that dividends make to your overall return. Most shrewd investors, and especially "my pal Warren," know this and understand why I re-emphasize the point when I make my annual selections.

By now I hope you have had a chance to peruse my picks for 2010. If not the links below will give you another opportunity.

Continue reading Chasing Value: 2010 Dividends for Ten Stock Picks

Chasing Value: 2010 Dividends for Ten Stock Picks originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 31 Dec 2009 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Chasing Value: 2010 -- #4 Home Depot

Chasing Value: 2010 -- #4 Home Depot originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 30 Dec 2009 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Chasing Value: 2010 -- #3 EZCORP

Chasing Value: 2010 -- #3 EZCORP originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 29 Dec 2009 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The 5 data points were price-to-sales (P/S), price-to-book (P/B), price-to-cash flow (P/CF), dividend yield and return-on-equity (ROE). I did look at other things but these were the subject of my initial focus.

Continue reading Chasing Value: 10 Stock Picks for 2010

Chasing Value: 10 Stock Picks for 2010 originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 29 Dec 2009 16:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Chasing Value: Ten stocks for 2010 -- Part 10

Chasing Value: Ten stocks for 2010 -- Part 10 originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 14 Dec 2009 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Home Depot quarter better than expected; shares set to recover

Home Depot quarter better than expected; shares set to recover originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 18 Aug 2009 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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

Analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations: PG, MCD, TLB, CL, JTX, HD, IPCM, MYRG and NFLX originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 20 May 2009 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Home Depot

Continue reading Home Depot (HD) tops estimates but remains under pressure

Home Depot (HD) tops estimates but remains under pressure originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 19 May 2009 14:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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

Lowe's rises after Q1 beat, but don't buy high originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 18 May 2009 15:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Serious Money: Home Depot & Lowe's belong on your watchlist

Serious Money: Home Depot & Lowe's belong on your watchlist originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 14 May 2009 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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

Williams-Sonoma beats expectations; its stock is strong but expensive originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 25 Mar 2009 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Many were surprised when they heard that Home Depot was closing all 34 of its Expo Home Design Centers, but if you are a regular reader of its financial reports, you certainly would have seen signs of major financial stress. Home Depot (NYSE: HD) first discussed a "store rationalization plan" in its first quarter of 2008 report. At that point, it closed 15 stores and removed about 50 stores from the future growth pipeline.

In the third quarter report (December 2008), Home Depot said, "We recognized $564 million in total pretax charges for the first nine months of fiscal 2008 related to the store rationalization plan, including $3 million in the third quarter of fiscal 2008." Clearly, the store rationalization plan was not complete and more cuts were to come.

Continue reading Reading between the lines: Home Depot gave financial report readers hints of more closings

Reading between the lines: Home Depot gave financial report readers hints of more closings originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 04 Feb 2009 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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:

• 20,000 cuts at Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE: CAT), a maker of construction and mining machinery;
• 8,000 jobs at the wireless provider Sprint Nextel Corporation (NYSE: S);
• 7,000 workers at The Home Depot, Inc. (NYSE: HD);
• 8,000 from the expected merger of the pharmaceutical makers Pfizer, Inc. (NYSE: PFE) and Wyeth (NYSE: WYE)
• 2,000 at General Motors Corporation (NYSE: GM) which will cut shifts at plants in Michigan and Ohio.
• 7,000 at European banking and insurance group ING;
• 6,000 at Philips, the electronics company; and
• 3,500 at steel maker Corus.

Continue reading 62,000 global layoffs today

62,000 global layoffs today originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 26 Jan 2009 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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.

Home Depot backs out of struggling EXPO business, slashes 7,000 jobs originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 26 Jan 2009 10:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Obama Stock Picks: Lowe's (LOW) and The Home Depot (HD)

Obama Stock Picks: Lowe's (LOW) and The Home Depot (HD) originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 20 Jan 2009 15:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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.

Home Depot ends program supporting Olympians originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 08 Jan 2009 13:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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

Lowe's beats earnings in Q3, but I'm not buying originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 18 Nov 2008 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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?

Can Home Depot (HD) surprise skeptical analysts with its second-quarter earnings? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 15 Aug 2008 15:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.