Home Depot Sees Unusually Large Options Volume (NYSE:HD)

The Home Depot, Inc. (NYSE:HD) was the target of unusually large options trading on Monday. Traders bought 23,918 put options on the company. This represents an increase of 10% compared to the typical volume of 21,716 put options.

Institutional Trading of Home Depot

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. K.J. Harrison & Partners Inc increased its holdings in shares of Home Depot by 65.2% in the fourth quarter. K.J. Harrison & Partners Inc now owns 9,100 shares of the home improvement retailer’s stock valued at $3,535,000 after buying an additional 3,590 shares in the last quarter. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC raised its position in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 3,873 shares during the period. Pensionfund Sabic raised its position in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 3,800 shares during the period. Wedmont Private Capital lifted its holdings in shares of Home Depot by 12.5% during the fourth quarter. Wedmont Private Capital now owns 13,569 shares of the home improvement retailer’s stock valued at $5,291,000 after purchasing an additional 1,506 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Disciplined Investors L.L.C. acquired a new position in shares of Home Depot in the 4th quarter valued at $409,000. 70.86% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have issued reports on HD shares. Royal Bank of Canada cut their price objective on Home Depot from $431.00 to $424.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. Telsey Advisory Group reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $455.00 target price on shares of Home Depot in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of Home Depot from a “moderate sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. Guggenheim reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $450.00 price objective on shares of Home Depot in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. Finally, KGI Securities upgraded shares of Home Depot to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, March 3rd. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $434.08.

Home Depot Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:HD opened at $333.90 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $331.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.68, 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. Home Depot has a 12 month low of $323.77 and a 12 month high of $439.37. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $379.92 and its 200 day moving average price is $397.16.

Home Depot (NYSE:HD) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 25th. The home improvement retailer reported $3.13 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.04 by $0.09. Home Depot had a return on equity of 452.60% and a net margin of 9.45%. The company had revenue of $39.70 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $39.15 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $2.82 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 14.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts anticipate that Home Depot will post 15.13 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Home Depot Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 27th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 13th were given a dividend of $2.30 per share. This is a positive change from Home Depot’s previous quarterly dividend of $2.25. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 13th. This represents a $9.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.76%. Home Depot’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 61.66%.

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.