Marshall Wace LLP Buys 350,579 Shares of The Home Depot, Inc. $HD

Marshall Wace LLP raised its position in shares of The Home Depot, Inc. (NYSE:HD) by 252.3% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 489,547 shares of the home improvement retailer’s stock after acquiring an additional 350,579 shares during the period. Marshall Wace LLP’s holdings in Home Depot were worth $179,488,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in HD. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Home Depot by 1.5% in the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 97,978,814 shares of the home improvement retailer’s stock valued at $35,922,952,000 after buying an additional 1,494,615 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Home Depot by 1.4% during the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 22,978,809 shares of the home improvement retailer’s stock worth $8,394,611,000 after buying an additional 327,674 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Home Depot by 1.1% in the second quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 14,568,860 shares of the home improvement retailer’s stock valued at $5,341,724,000 after acquiring an additional 153,582 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Home Depot in the second quarter valued at about $4,885,603,000. Finally, Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Home Depot by 36,207.5% in the second quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 10,076,783 shares of the home improvement retailer’s stock valued at $3,694,552,000 after acquiring an additional 10,049,029 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.86% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have weighed in on HD. Sanford C. Bernstein reiterated a “market perform” rating and issued a $362.00 price objective on shares of Home Depot in a research note on Monday, November 24th. DZ Bank reiterated a “sell” rating on shares of Home Depot in a research report on Tuesday, November 18th. KGI Securities cut Home Depot from an “outperform” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $320.00 price target for the company. in a research note on Wednesday, November 19th. Oppenheimer raised their price objective on Home Depot from $400.00 to $420.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 25th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price objective on Home Depot from $474.00 to $438.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, November 19th. Twenty-one equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have issued a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $403.93.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, EVP William D. Bastek sold 2,303 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $423.12, for a total value of $974,445.36. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 24,235 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,254,313.20. This represents a 8.68% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Insiders own 0.10% of the company’s stock.

Home Depot Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:HD opened at $350.66 on Friday. The Home Depot, Inc. has a 1 year low of $326.31 and a 1 year high of $436.36. The stock has a market capitalization of $349.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.90, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.31 and a beta of 1.06. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.82, a current ratio of 1.05 and a quick ratio of 0.29. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $374.17 and its 200 day simple moving average is $379.93.

Home Depot (NYSE:HD) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, November 18th. The home improvement retailer reported $3.74 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $3.83 by ($0.09). Home Depot had a return on equity of 160.74% and a net margin of 8.77%.The business had revenue of $41.35 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $41.06 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $3.78 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.8% on a year-over-year basis. Home Depot has set its FY 2025 guidance at 14.478-14.478 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that The Home Depot, Inc. will post 15.13 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Home Depot Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 18th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, December 4th will be paid a dividend of $2.30 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, December 4th. This represents a $9.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.6%. Home Depot’s payout ratio is presently 62.71%.

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.