Dana Investment Advisors Inc. Sells 505 Shares of The Home Depot, Inc. (NYSE:HD)

Dana Investment Advisors Inc. lowered its holdings in shares of The Home Depot, Inc. (NYSE:HD) by 1.3% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 38,432 shares of the home improvement retailer’s stock after selling 505 shares during the period. Dana Investment Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Home Depot were worth $14,950,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. K.J. Harrison & Partners Inc increased its position in shares of Home Depot by 65.2% during the fourth quarter. K.J. Harrison & Partners Inc now owns 9,100 shares of the home improvement retailer’s stock worth $3,535,000 after buying an additional 3,590 shares during the period. Pensionfund Sabic increased its position in shares of Home Depot by 51.4% during the fourth quarter. Pensionfund Sabic now owns 11,200 shares of the home improvement retailer’s stock worth $4,357,000 after buying an additional 3,800 shares during the period. Swedbank AB increased its position in shares of Home Depot by 17.1% during the third quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 909,530 shares of the home improvement retailer’s stock worth $368,542,000 after buying an additional 132,967 shares during the period. Wedmont Private Capital grew its holdings in Home Depot by 12.5% in the fourth quarter. Wedmont Private Capital now owns 13,569 shares of the home improvement retailer’s stock worth $5,291,000 after purchasing an additional 1,506 shares during the period. Finally, Johnson & White Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Home Depot in the fourth quarter worth $1,793,000. 70.86% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

HD has been the subject of a number of research reports. Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of Home Depot from a “moderate sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 26th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of Home Depot from $450.00 to $475.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, February 10th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on shares of Home Depot from $440.00 to $450.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 13th. KGI Securities upgraded shares of Home Depot to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday. Finally, Guggenheim reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $450.00 price objective on shares of Home Depot in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-two have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $436.50.

Home Depot Stock Performance

Shares of HD stock opened at $386.82 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $384.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.28, a P/E/G ratio of 4.03 and a beta of 1.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.65, a quick ratio of 0.31 and a current ratio of 1.13. The Home Depot, Inc. has a 52 week low of $323.77 and a 52 week high of $439.37. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $400.81 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $399.62.

Home Depot (NYSE:HD) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 25th. The home improvement retailer reported $3.13 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.04 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $39.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates 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 for the quarter was up 14.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $2.82 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast 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. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 13th will be paid a $2.30 dividend. This is an increase from Home Depot’s previous quarterly dividend of $2.25. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, March 13th. This represents a $9.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.38%. Home Depot’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 61.66%.

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.