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Home Depot (HD) Outpaces Stock Market Gains: What You Should Know

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Home Depot (HD - Free Report) closed at $225.61 in the latest trading session, marking a +1.7% move from the prior day. This move outpaced the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.9%. Meanwhile, the Dow gained 0.56%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, added 1.13%.

Coming into today, shares of the home-improvement retailer had gained 15.95% in the past month. In that same time, the Retail-Wholesale sector gained 16.32%, while the S&P 500 gained 14.3%.

Investors will be hoping for strength from HD as it approaches its next earnings release, which is expected to be May 19, 2020. The company is expected to report EPS of $2.23, down 1.76% from the prior-year quarter. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $27.39 billion, up 3.84% from the year-ago period.

For the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $9.86 per share and revenue of $110.88 billion, which would represent changes of -3.8% and +0.59%, respectively, from the prior year.

Investors might also notice recent changes to analyst estimates for HD. These recent revisions tend to reflect the evolving nature of short-term business trends. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the company's business outlook.

Research indicates that these estimate revisions are directly correlated with near-term share price momentum. We developed the Zacks Rank to capitalize on this phenomenon. Our system takes these estimate changes into account and delivers a clear, actionable rating model.

The Zacks Rank system, which ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has an impressive outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks generating an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 2.02% lower. HD is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

Valuation is also important, so investors should note that HD has a Forward P/E ratio of 22.5 right now. This valuation marks a premium compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 15.77.

Meanwhile, HD's PEG ratio is currently 2.05. This popular metric is similar to the widely-known P/E ratio, with the difference being that the PEG ratio also takes into account the company's expected earnings growth rate. HD's industry had an average PEG ratio of 1.65 as of yesterday's close.

The Building Products - Retail industry is part of the Retail-Wholesale sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 233, which puts it in the bottom 9% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our individual industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

To follow HD in the coming trading sessions, be sure to utilize Zacks.com.


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