Piper Jaffray Neutral On Home Depot

Piper Jaffray is out with a research report on Home Depot HD and it has a Neutral rating and a $39 price target on shares. In a note to clients, Piper Jaffray writes, "We are maintaining our Neutral rating and holding our Q2E EPS estimates of $0.83 and $0.66 on HD and LOW ahead of the Q2 conference call. During this quarter we continued to work with Remote Sensing Metrics to track parking lot fill rates via satellite (details on page 2). While the satellite data provides no insight into average ticket, it does suggest improving traffic trends at both retailers (relative to Q1) and continued outperformance by HD. All in, we expect in-line Q2 performance but are concerned about forward guidance due to the home improvement industry's dependence on GDP growth, housing turnover, and home price changes." Shares of HD gained $1.54 yesterday to close at $30.05, a gain of 5.4%.