HD Benefits From Recovery Signs In The US

Analyst Jeffrey P Klinefelter of Piper Jaffray reiterates his "neutral" rating on Home Depot Inc HD. The target price for HD is set to $36. Piper Jaffray mentions that they have not changed its Q1 earnings estimates, despite change in the fundamentals for better. “We are assuming a comp of +3% vs. Consensus of +2.2%, which we believe will lead to Q1E sales of $16.4B vs. Consensus of $16.3B. We believe the appreciation of the Canadian Dollar to US Dollar, +20% y/y will positively impacted reported comp by ~200bps. Recall,” the analyst says. “The Company also believes modest gross margin expansion and expense leverage will allow HD to achieve F10E EPS of $1.79. Our F10E is based on a comp of +3% (Consensus of +3.1%), slight gross margin leverage of ~19 bps and SG&A leverage of ~32 bps,” the analyst adds. More Analyst Ratings here