The Home Depot Inc. (NYSE:HD) – At the Open: New Records for S&P 500, Dow Jones Industrials?

Is it time to pop the champagne and celebrate new stock market highs? The Dow Jones Industrials have risen 0.2% to 15,781.75 at 9:51 a.m.-a record high–lifted by the Home Depot (HD), which has gained 0.9%, and General Electric (GE), which has risen 0.7%. Deutsche Bank’s Alan Ruskin explains why the number isn’t as strong as it looks: Headline GDP 2.8%.

Looking at the stock, its one day range is $76.34 to $77.18 with a one year range of $60.21 to $81.56. HD shares are currently priced at 20.71x this year’s forecasted earnings, which makes them relatively inexpensive compared to the industry’s 25.39x earnings multiple for the same period. 

The company pays shareholders $1.56 per share annually in dividends, yielding 2.00%. In a review of the consensus earnings estimate this quarter, 26 sell-side analysts are looking at $0.89 per share, which would be $0.15 better than the year-ago quarter and a $0.01 sequential increase. Read more.

Think Home Depot Is Too Big? Think Again.

Many investors don't need to be reminded of the tremendous growth that Home Depot (NYSE: HD  ) has seen over the previous years as the company has emerged a winner following the 2008 recession. The rebound of consumer residential spending and strong housing starts are two strong reasons why shares are up over 100% in the last two years. Outside of favorable economic trends lies a well managed and well positioned company that is well positioned to continue growing over the years.

Many investors are questioning if the company's growth can continue over the coming years. From a revenue perspective, the argument can be made that the company still has several more years of above-average growth ahead. 

Fitch Ratings released a study which concluded that homeowners are set to increase spending on home improvement projects, a trend which will continue into 2014. Read more.

Early Briefing and Review The Home Depot Inc.

The Home Depot Inc.'s stock fluctuated between gains and losses before finishing the day nearly flat on Thursday. The company's shares ended the day at $77.89, up 0.01%, after fluctuating between $77.52 and $78.45 during the trading session. A total of 7.55 million shares were traded, which is above the daily average volume of 7.33 million. The company's shares have gained 2.41% in the previous three trading sessions, compared to a loss of 0.32% in the S&P 500 during the same period. Further, The Home Depot Inc.'s stock is trading above its 50-day and 200-day moving averages of $75.37 and $74.06, respectively.

On Thursday, Wendy's Co.'s stock edged lower to close at $8.69, down 0.34% from the previous day's closing price of $8.72. The company's shares fluctuated between $8.66 and $8.76 during the trading session. A total of 6.43 million shares were traded, which is above the daily average volume of 6.16 million. Read more.

The Home Depot To Host Third Quarter 2013 Earnings Conference Call On November 19

The Home Depot ® , the world's largest home improvement retailer, announced today that it will hold its Third Quarter Earnings Conference Call on Tuesday, November 19 , at 9 a.m. ET .

A webcast will be available by logging onto http://earnings.homedepot.com and selecting the Third Quarter Earnings Conference Call icon. The webcast will be archived and available beginning at approximately noon on November 19 .

The Home Depot is the world's largest home improvement specialty retailer, with 2,260 retail stores in all 50 states, the District of Columbia , Puerto Rico , U.S. Virgin Islands , Guam , 10 Canadian provinces and Mexico . In fiscal 2012, The Home Depot had sales of $74.8 billion and earnings of $4.5 billion . The Company employs more than 300,000 associates.  Read more.

Range-bound trade in HD Supply

A trader is looking for shares to remain range-bound in industrial-distribution company HD Supply. 

optionMONSTER systems show that 5,300 March 22.50 calls were sold for the bid price of $0.90 on a very wide bid/ask spread. This is clearly a new position, as the previous open interest was 1,551 contracts. 

Seconds later a block of 212,000 HDS shares was bought for $19.92. Taken together, the stock and option trades create a delta-neutral strategy that is looking for range-bound trading and/or for actual volatility to be lower than that implied by the options. Read more.

Dow Finishes Week Strong Despite Home Depot's Decline

As the market opened this morning, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJINDICES: ^DJI  ) was down for the week; but then the blue chip index rallied this afternoon, and closed up 69 points, or 0.45%, and the Dow ended the last week of October in the black by 45 points, or 0.29%. The same is true for the S&P 500, which ended today's session up 5.1 points, or 0.29%, and the week higher by 1.87 points, or 0.1%. The Nasdaq moved higher today by 2.33 points, or 0.06%, but that wasn't enough to dig itself out of the hole it created earlier in the week and, thus, the tech-heavy index finished the week down 21 points, or 0.54%.

One Dow component that contributed to today's winning session was Walt-Disney (NYSE: DIS  ) , which inched higher by 0.61% as talks pertaining to a new contract between Disney and cable provider Dish Network (NASDAQ: DISH  ) continue to move sluggishly. HD.

Home Depot Sending 20,000 Part-Timers to Health Exchanges

Home Depot Inc. (HD), the world’s largest home improvement retailer, plans to end medical coverage for about 20,000 part-time employees and direct them to government-sponsored exchanges scheduled to open next month as companies revamp benefits to fit the U.S. Affordable Care Act.
 
Employees with fewer than 30 hours a week will no longer be offered limited liability medical coverage, Stephen Holmes, a spokesman, said today by telephone. About 5 percent of Atlanta-based Home Depot’s 340,000 employees are enrolled in that plan.

United Parcel Service Inc. (UPS), Trader Joe’s Co. and other employers have been cutting benefits ahead of next month’s roll-out of government exchanges that were designed to give uninsured Americans a chance to buy taxpayer-subsidized medical coverage. Read more DH.