The Home Depot, Inc. (HD)

teufelhund05 (< 20) Submitted: 4/24/08 9:57 AM

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You make a lot of sense here. I believe the same thing. I have picked HD and Lowe's to be underperformers for a while, at least. Things have to turn around with housing markets to make these two worth their weight again.

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LittleHarvey (36.25) Submitted: 4/24/08 12:25 PM

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It is far cheaper to fix up your home than it is to buy a new one. HD is going to zoom for most of the reasons that you state that will make it go down. Buy HD now!!!

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Elfmobile (38.57) Submitted: 4/25/08 1:25 PM

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With the economy on a slow down, people will need to fix their homes themselves - rather than pay someone else to do it. I see this stock as a necessity in my portfolio.

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money4eds (47.63) Submitted: 4/29/08 10:27 AM

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Don't buy now. See my profile for HD insights.

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likestofocus (91.20) Submitted: 4/30/08 6:00 PM

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How will people pay for their renovations if they can't tap into non existing equity in their homes?

With energy and food prices skyrocketing, house prices falling and borrowing tightening I think Joe Sixpack will be more worried about putting food in the kitchen then renovating that kitchen.

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breaktrack (95.13) Submitted: 5/02/08 10:26 AM

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but the parking lot was filled to max capacity last weekend all day in the HD near me.

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bucklebuck (40.13) Submitted: 5/06/08 3:06 PM

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I am counting on the nice summer weather and some government tax refund checks to power HD for the next few months.

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Deepfryer (32.72) Submitted: 5/09/08 3:53 PM

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It seems kind of late to give this a thumbs down at a time like this, after it's already been beat up. How much lower do you really think it will go? Everyone knows the economy has slowed down: this has already been priced in.

It looks to me like HD bottomed out in early March, and now it's slowly starting to trend back up. It's time to buy!

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Danimal13Valpo (46.81) Submitted: 5/16/08 5:41 AM

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That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard. This is all about home sales (which create 10's of thousands of dollars for the likes of HD) as opposed to home repair and improvement (which MAYBE offer thousands of dollars in return on a home sale). Home Depot will struggle for awhile due to the credit crisis which will make it harder to borrow to fix up homes and builders will slow construction to a crawl until inventories dwindle. The only way Home Depot will meet expectations is if it increases cash register sales of Snickers and Kit Kat bars by 1000000%, and I doubt that will happen.... especially after the cost of candy bars has just risen 33%.

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Danimal13Valpo (46.81) Submitted: 5/16/08 5:50 AM

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A full parking lot doesn't necessarily equate to a full shopping cart my friend... And there's a big difference in the bottom line between putty and nails purchases as opposed to $2000 refrigerators and $3000 stackable frontloading washer and dryer combos.

My advice to you is to get out of the parking lot and into the store to see what's really going on.

P.S. My friend is a contract hauler for our local Menard's (which is better than HD) and business sucks.

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TheParadox (63.80) Submitted: 5/20/08 1:52 PM

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I disagree. While i don't like Home Depot, i do like Lowes... for reasons not of customer service, or anything else, but from management and good fundamentals. pure craziness, huh?

both HD and LOW are great value buys right now... so when the market comes around, your sitting with a company that has great management, that has outperformed the market over the past 10 years (I did most of my research on LOW here and compared it to HD. HD did perform at about 18% per year while Lowes is nearly 20% per year return. I measured this rates by EPS, and figured that in the long term, its EPS that matters. I also figured take a buffet approach and waiting till they became cheap, so you could catch them at a low PE, and sell at a higher PE over a longer period. Buffet is smart.)

HD is moving into china, i know how people like to jump on that train... just thought i would throw that out there. So this may offer some stability as the dollar is cheap.

But more importantly, the housing crisis is "spotty" or in regions... not all areas (and stores) will really feel any impact while some will suffer had. HD is not a good buy because HD ownes the real estate... bad move for HD because real estate must be liquidated when they close the store, and there is a potential to lose money on those transaction. LOW on the other hand, has leases, and can move out "quickly" taking minor hit on fees... this is great, if the stores does work because the local market blows, then just get out.

while i am underperforming HD, its for different reasons. Consider the following:

HD's revenue is down only 5% for Jan06 to Jan08, but Net Income is down 24% for the same period. Bad management.

LOW's revenue is actually UP (thats right, UP and not down) 11%, for the exact same time period. (to the month)
LOW's Net income is UP (i know, unbelievable to pick stocks on fundamentals) 1.4% which is pretty flat.

LOW has a better margin than HD by about 1.4% on the books

Now, lets look at the stocks to gauge, if any which one we should buy if any. Both stocks are down 20% over the past 2 years. It would appear that some, mostly all, are punishing both stocks equally based on nothing more than the housing market... Regardless of how actually the company is doing.

both HD, and LOW are good buys, but HD simply adds unnecessary risk.

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Stevem134 (67.27) Submitted: 5/28/08 10:18 AM

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But, People in Vermont still have cash, and some credit left, and if they do in Vermont I know they do in other states.
Home Depot is doing okay, they might have slowed but they are still chugging along, more people are looking to contractors that can get a job done faster and maybe sometimes cheaper then do it yourself and the contractors are now buying at Home Depot and Lowes instead of the mom and pop's where prices are higher. If you take about twenty minute out of your day and sit in a Home Depot driveway you will see what I am talking about. I did just that over a three week period during my lunch and I saw them hauling out forklift loads of building materials and loading them on trailers that contrators had for them. So I would not rule out the discount home lumber/goods store yet.

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nane727lc (78.07) Submitted: 5/30/08 8:23 PM

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I go to home depot like people go to starbucks and you don't need credit to shop cash will do just nicely

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