Stock price when the opinion was issued
Interest rates cuts are stalling, so shares are -7.74% the past month; housing turnover and the weather have been bad. Tool sales are down. It reports tomorrow, but he will buy after that report. He has faith, because when the street was shorting this in 2008's housing crisis, HD gained market share and bought back a ton of shares.
Last September, he sold and took profits. Shares are trading ~24x forward PE, for 5% EPS growth. Valuation's expensive. EPS growth rate expectations have come down. Cautious spending by consumers, stock's slipped below 200-day MA. Long-term inflation is dampening the DIYers, sluggish home sales. A name to own early economic cycle, and we're about mid-way through now.
High quality. With high interest rates, seeing weakness in terms of large projects. But things are starting to normalize. Looking ahead a year from now, interest rates will probably start trending down and historically low housing starts should improve. Recent acquisition of SRS diversifies its offerings.
(Analysts’ price target is $374.94)Long-term trend is still positive. Over half US housing stock is over 40 years old, so if interest rates make it too costly to move, you have to do some repairs. Still lots of 18-35 year olds living at home, and they need to move to their own places. Immigration is positive as well. Attractive yield of 2.62%.