Argent Advisors Inc. Decreases Stock Position in The Home Depot, Inc. (NYSE:HD)

Argent Advisors Inc. lessened its position in The Home Depot, Inc. (NYSE:HD) by 4.2% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 4,479 shares of the home improvement retailer’s stock after selling 195 shares during the quarter. Argent Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Home Depot were worth $1,742,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in HD. K.J. Harrison & Partners Inc lifted its position in Home Depot by 65.2% during the fourth quarter. K.J. Harrison & Partners Inc now owns 9,100 shares of the home improvement retailer’s stock worth $3,535,000 after buying an additional 3,590 shares in the last quarter. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC lifted its position in Home Depot by 19.5% during the fourth quarter. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC now owns 23,758 shares of the home improvement retailer’s stock worth $9,242,000 after buying an additional 3,873 shares in the last quarter. Pensionfund Sabic lifted its position in Home Depot by 51.4% during the fourth quarter. Pensionfund Sabic now owns 11,200 shares of the home improvement retailer’s stock worth $4,357,000 after buying an additional 3,800 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB lifted its position in Home Depot by 17.1% during the third quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 909,530 shares of the home improvement retailer’s stock worth $368,542,000 after buying an additional 132,967 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Wedmont Private Capital lifted its position in Home Depot by 12.5% during the fourth quarter. Wedmont Private Capital now owns 13,569 shares of the home improvement retailer’s stock worth $5,291,000 after buying an additional 1,506 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.86% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the company. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on Home Depot from $440.00 to $450.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised 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. Telsey Advisory Group reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $455.00 target price on shares of Home Depot in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. KGI Securities raised Home Depot to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, March 3rd. Finally, Robert W. Baird cut their target price on Home Depot from $440.00 to $430.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-two have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $436.50.

Home Depot Trading Up 0.8 %

HD opened at $354.06 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $351.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.05, a PEG ratio of 4.03 and a beta of 1.09. 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 business has a fifty day moving average price of $396.73 and a 200 day moving average price of $399.54. The Home Depot, Inc. has a 12 month low of $323.77 and a 12 month high of $439.37.

Home Depot (NYSE:HD) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 25th. The home improvement retailer reported $3.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.04 by $0.09. The company had revenue of $39.70 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $39.15 billion. Home Depot had a return on equity of 452.60% and a net margin of 9.45%. Home Depot’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.82 EPS. 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 declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 27th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 13th will be issued a dividend of $2.30 per share. This represents a $9.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.60%. This is an increase from Home Depot’s previous quarterly dividend of $2.25. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, March 13th. Home Depot’s payout ratio is 61.66%.

Home Depot Profile

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.