Welch & Forbes LLC Sells 1,226 Shares of The Home Depot, Inc. (NYSE:HD)

Welch & Forbes LLC decreased its holdings in shares of The Home Depot, Inc. (NYSE:HD) by 0.3% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 431,719 shares of the home improvement retailer’s stock after selling 1,226 shares during the quarter. Home Depot makes up about 2.3% of Welch & Forbes LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 10th largest position. Welch & Forbes LLC’s holdings in Home Depot were worth $149,612,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Congress Wealth Management LLC DE lifted its position in shares of 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 worth $26,725,000 after acquiring an additional 3,162 shares during the period. Hartline Investment Corp lifted its position in Home Depot by 3.0% in the fourth quarter. Hartline Investment Corp now owns 15,574 shares of the home improvement retailer’s stock worth $5,397,000 after purchasing an additional 460 shares during the period. Wolf Group Capital Advisors boosted its stake in Home Depot by 6.1% during the fourth quarter. Wolf Group Capital Advisors now owns 7,513 shares of the home improvement retailer’s stock worth $2,604,000 after buying an additional 430 shares in the last quarter. Alliance Wealth Management Group bought a new stake in Home Depot in the 4th quarter valued at $253,000. Finally, Psagot Value Holdings Ltd. Israel raised its stake in shares of 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 in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.86% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Timothy A. Hourigan sold 8,996 shares of Home Depot stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $368.74, for a total value of $3,317,185.04. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 75,799 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $27,950,123.26. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In other Home Depot news, EVP Timothy A. Hourigan sold 8,996 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 75,799 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $27,950,123.26. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Edward P. Decker sold 35,987 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 owns 107,731 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $39,712,878.53. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.10% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently weighed in on HD shares. StockNews.com cut shares of Home Depot from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday. Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on Home Depot from $299.00 to $377.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Monday, February 26th. Evercore ISI lowered their price target on Home Depot from $420.00 to $415.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 16th. Oppenheimer cut Home Depot from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Monday, January 22nd. Finally, Guggenheim reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $390.00 target price on shares of Home Depot in a report on Friday, April 5th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and eighteen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $375.96.

Home Depot Trading Down 0.2 %

Shares of NYSE:HD traded down $0.57 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching $342.28. The stock had a trading volume of 3,366,053 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,350,042. The firm has a market cap of $339.21 billion, a PE ratio of 22.67, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.28 and a beta of 1.01. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $361.16 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $343.16. The company has a current ratio of 1.35, a quick ratio of 0.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 40.94. The Home Depot, Inc. has a twelve month low of $274.26 and a twelve month high of $396.87.

Home Depot (NYSE:HD) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 20th. The home improvement retailer reported $2.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.77 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $34.79 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $34.64 billion. Home Depot had a net margin of 9.92% and a return on equity of 1,452.22%. The firm’s revenue was down 2.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $3.30 EPS. On average, research analysts predict that The Home Depot, Inc. will post 15.37 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Home Depot Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 21st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 7th were given a dividend of $2.25 per share. This is an increase from Home Depot’s previous quarterly dividend of $2.09. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, March 6th. This represents a $9.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.63%. Home Depot’s dividend payout ratio is currently 59.60%.

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.