LGT Capital Partners LTD. Decreases Stake in The Home Depot, Inc. (NYSE:HD)

LGT Capital Partners LTD. reduced its stake in shares of The Home Depot, Inc. (NYSE:HD) by 7.8% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 75,822 shares of the home improvement retailer’s stock after selling 6,417 shares during the period. LGT Capital Partners LTD.’s holdings in Home Depot were worth $29,494,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in HD. SYM FINANCIAL Corp boosted its position in shares of Home Depot by 17.8% during the 3rd quarter. SYM FINANCIAL Corp now owns 1,917 shares of the home improvement retailer’s stock worth $777,000 after purchasing an additional 289 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB boosted its position in shares of Home Depot by 17.1% during the 3rd quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 909,530 shares of the home improvement retailer’s stock worth $368,542,000 after purchasing an additional 132,967 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Home Depot by 10.7% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,471,223 shares of the home improvement retailer’s stock worth $596,140,000 after purchasing an additional 141,915 shares in the last quarter. Capital Performance Advisors LLP boosted its position in shares of Home Depot by 22.1% during the 3rd quarter. Capital Performance Advisors LLP now owns 740 shares of the home improvement retailer’s stock worth $300,000 after purchasing an additional 134 shares in the last quarter. Finally, ABLE Financial Group LLC boosted its position in shares of Home Depot by 10.6% in the 3rd quarter. ABLE Financial Group LLC now owns 5,667 shares of the home improvement retailer’s stock worth $2,296,000 after buying an additional 542 shares in the last quarter. 70.86% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently commented on HD. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on shares of Home Depot from $440.00 to $450.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. 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 reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $450.00 price objective on shares of Home Depot in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on shares of Home Depot from $375.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, November 11th. Finally, Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on shares of Home Depot from $420.00 to $430.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 13th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-two have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $436.50.

Home Depot Trading Down 1.3 %

NYSE HD opened at $376.66 on Friday. The Home Depot, Inc. has a 12 month low of $323.77 and a 12 month high of $439.37. The company has a 50-day moving average of $400.21 and a 200-day moving average of $399.81. 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 company has a market cap of $374.16 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.59, a P/E/G ratio of 4.03 and a beta of 1.09.

Home Depot (NYSE:HD) last posted its 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 firm had revenue of $39.70 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $39.15 billion. Home Depot had a net margin of 9.45% and a return on equity of 452.60%. The company’s revenue was up 14.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $2.82 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that The Home Depot, Inc. will post 15.13 earnings per share for the current year.

Home Depot Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 27th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 13th will be given a dividend of $2.30 per share. This represents a $9.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.44%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, March 13th. This is an increase from Home Depot’s previous quarterly dividend of $2.25. Home Depot’s dividend payout ratio is 61.66%.

Home Depot Company 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.