The Home Depot, Inc. (NYSE:HD) Shares Acquired by Access Financial Services Inc.

Access Financial Services Inc. lifted its position in shares of The Home Depot, Inc. (NYSE:HD) by 4.1% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 1,875 shares of the home improvement retailer’s stock after acquiring an additional 74 shares during the quarter. Access Financial Services Inc.’s holdings in Home Depot were worth $650,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Congress Wealth Management LLC DE boosted its position in Home Depot by 3.7% in the 3rd quarter. Congress Wealth Management LLC DE now owns 88,444 shares of the home improvement retailer’s stock valued at $26,725,000 after buying an additional 3,162 shares during the period. Psagot Value Holdings Ltd. Israel boosted its position in Home Depot by 8.0% in the 3rd quarter. Psagot Value Holdings Ltd. Israel now owns 2,700 shares of the home improvement retailer’s stock valued at $819,000 after buying an additional 200 shares during the period. Industrial Alliance Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in Home Depot by 119.8% in the 3rd quarter. Industrial Alliance Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,945 shares of the home improvement retailer’s stock valued at $890,000 after buying an additional 1,605 shares during the period. Cape Cod Five Cents Savings Bank boosted its position in Home Depot by 96.3% in the 3rd quarter. Cape Cod Five Cents Savings Bank now owns 72,994 shares of the home improvement retailer’s stock valued at $22,056,000 after buying an additional 35,805 shares during the period. Finally, National Pension Service boosted its position in Home Depot by 6.4% in the 2nd quarter. National Pension Service now owns 1,543,616 shares of the home improvement retailer’s stock valued at $475,156,000 after buying an additional 92,354 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.86% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Citigroup lifted their price objective on shares of Home Depot from $333.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 21st. Oppenheimer cut shares of Home Depot from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Monday, January 22nd. Telsey Advisory Group lifted their price objective on shares of Home Depot from $325.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 15th. Barclays raised shares of Home Depot from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $325.00 to $372.00 in a research report on Thursday, January 4th. Finally, Mizuho began coverage on shares of Home Depot in a research report on Tuesday, March 19th. They set a “buy” rating and a $415.00 price objective for the company. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and seventeen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $368.76.

Insider Transactions at Home Depot

In other news, CEO Edward P. Decker sold 35,987 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $368.63, for a total value of $13,265,887.81. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 107,731 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $39,712,878.53. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In other news, CEO Edward P. Decker sold 35,987 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $368.63, for a total value of $13,265,887.81. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 107,731 shares in the company, valued at $39,712,878.53. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Timothy A. Hourigan sold 8,996 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $368.74, for a total transaction of $3,317,185.04. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 75,799 shares in the company, valued at $27,950,123.26. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

Home Depot Stock Performance

NYSE:HD opened at $383.57 on Friday. The Home Depot, Inc. has a 1-year low of $274.26 and a 1-year high of $396.87. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 40.94, a current ratio of 1.35 and a quick ratio of 0.40. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $368.47 and a 200-day simple moving average of $334.54. The firm has a market cap of $380.13 billion, a PE ratio of 25.40, a P/E/G ratio of 2.55 and a beta of 0.99.

Home Depot (NYSE:HD) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 20th. The home improvement retailer reported $2.82 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.77 by $0.05. Home Depot had a net margin of 9.92% and a return on equity of 1,452.22%. The firm had revenue of $34.79 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $34.64 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $3.30 earnings per share. Home Depot’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts expect that The Home Depot, Inc. will post 15.39 EPS for the current year.

Home Depot Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 21st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 7th were given a $2.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 6th. This represents a $9.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.35%. This is a positive change from Home Depot’s previous quarterly dividend of $2.09. Home Depot’s dividend payout ratio is presently 59.60%.

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.