River Street Advisors LLC Buys 234 Shares of The Home Depot, Inc. (NYSE:HD)

River Street Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of The Home Depot, Inc. (NYSE:HD) by 7.1% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 3,530 shares of the home improvement retailer’s stock after purchasing an additional 234 shares during the period. River Street Advisors LLC’s holdings in Home Depot were worth $1,354,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Cape Investment Advisory Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Home Depot by 1.4% during the fourth quarter. Cape Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 1,963 shares of the home improvement retailer’s stock valued at $680,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. Optas LLC boosted its holdings in Home Depot by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. Optas LLC now owns 1,752 shares of the home improvement retailer’s stock worth $607,000 after acquiring an additional 29 shares in the last quarter. STAR Financial Bank grew its stake in shares of Home Depot by 0.7% in the fourth quarter. STAR Financial Bank now owns 3,944 shares of the home improvement retailer’s stock worth $1,367,000 after acquiring an additional 29 shares during the last quarter. Harvest Investment Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Home Depot by 0.8% in the third quarter. Harvest Investment Advisors LLC now owns 3,815 shares of the home improvement retailer’s stock worth $1,153,000 after acquiring an additional 30 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Armstrong Henry H Associates Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Home Depot by 0.3% during the fourth quarter. Armstrong Henry H Associates Inc. now owns 10,903 shares of the home improvement retailer’s stock valued at $3,778,000 after acquiring an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. 70.86% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently commented on HD. Raymond James reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Home Depot in a research report on Wednesday, May 15th. TD Cowen reduced their price target on shares of Home Depot from $440.00 to $420.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, May 15th. Citigroup decreased their price objective on shares of Home Depot from $415.00 to $395.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, May 7th. Zelman & Associates upgraded Home Depot from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 2nd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target on Home Depot from $425.00 to $400.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 9th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and twenty have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Home Depot presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $378.42.

Home Depot Price Performance

Shares of NYSE HD traded up $2.75 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $344.24. The stock had a trading volume of 6,344,192 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,519,389. The company has a market capitalization of $341.35 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.09, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.38 and a beta of 1.00. The Home Depot, Inc. has a 12-month low of $274.26 and a 12-month high of $396.87. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $338.51 and a 200-day moving average of $352.74. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 23.11, a quick ratio of 0.42 and a current ratio of 1.34.

Home Depot (NYSE:HD) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 14th. The home improvement retailer reported $3.63 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.61 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $36.42 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $36.65 billion. Home Depot had a return on equity of 1,056.67% and a net margin of 9.79%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 2.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $3.82 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts anticipate that The Home Depot, Inc. will post 15.28 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Home Depot Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 13th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 30th were paid a $2.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, May 30th. This represents a $9.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.61%. Home Depot’s payout ratio is 60.36%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Home Depot

In related news, EVP Matt Carey sold 56,008 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $345.18, for a total transaction of $19,332,841.44. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 33,325 shares in the company, valued at $11,503,123.50. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.10% of the company’s stock.

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.