Walmart and Home Depot to Open Near 52-Week Highs

The Dow and the S&P 500 closed up less than 1% yesterday after being lower most of the day. But big-box retailers Home Depot HD and Walmart WMT again reached new multiyear highs -- of $42.05 and $59.66 per share, respectively -- during the trading session. Home Depot has been in 52-week high territory since early November. The company also recently boosted its quarterly dividend by 16% and raised its guidance for the full fiscal year. The home improvement retailer operates more than 2,200 stores, primarily in North America, but also in China. The Atlanta-based company is an S&P 500 component, has a market cap is $64.8 billion and was founded in 1978. Home Depot's dividend yield is 2.7%, its return on equity is 20.0% and the long-term EPS growth forecast is 13.7%. The P/E and PEG ratios are higher than the industry average, but so is the operating margin. Seventeen of 28 analysts following the stock recommend buying it, but their mean price target is not much higher than the current share price. The share price increased more than 14% in the past month and is more than 51% higher than the 52-week low in August. The stock has outperformed rival Lowe's LOW and the broader markets over the past six months. Walmart recently announced plans to open 80 additional stores in Brazil as part of its efforts to expand operations in the BRIC nations. These days, Walmart earns nearly a third of its total revenues from abroad. The company is headquartered in Bentonville, Ark., and operates retail stores in various formats worldwide. This S&P 500 component was founded in 1945 and now has a market cap of $203.4 billion. Earnings per share are anticipated to grow 9.6% over the next five years. The dividend yield is 2.5%. The price-to-earnings ratio is lower than the industry average and the return on equity is 23.5%. The consensus recommendation is to buy the stock; the mean price target is more than 3% higher than the current share price. Shares popped earlier this week after trading around $58 since late November. Because of this rise, the stock has outperformed competitors Costco COST and Target TGT over the past six months.