Going Into Earnings, Is Home Depot Stock a Buy, a Sell, or Fairly Valued?

Home Depot HD is set to release its second-quarter earnings report on Aug. 13. Here’s Morningstar’s take on what to look for in Home Depot’s earnings and stock.

Key Morningstar Metrics for Home Depot

• Fair Value Estimate: $270.00
• Morningstar Rating: 1 star
• Morningstar Economic Moat Rating: Wide
• Morningstar Uncertainty Rating: Low

Earnings Release Date

• Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2024, before the start of trading

What to Watch for in Home Depot’s Q1 Earnings

• Did the delayed start to the spring lead to faster-than-expected sales in the second quarter? Some geographies that warmed early were faring well, but consumer behavior has been volatile across discretionary lines over the past few months.
• Has the slowdown in big-ticket projects (which can often be financed) decreased? Home Depot’s big-ticket comps (transactions over $1,000) were down 6.5% in the first quarter.
• We’re curious about any information on the integration of the SRS acquisition. In 2023, SRS delivered $10 billion in sales and $1.1 billion in EBITDA, indicating an 11% EBITDA margin, moderately below Home Depot’s 16% enterprise-level EBITDA margin. We’ve added the $18.25 billion purchase price and $10 billion in debt to finance the transaction into our model, along with the corresponding revenue and profit streams.

Fair Value Estimate for Home Depot Stock

After incorporating the acquisition of SRS into Home Depot’s model, we are increasing our fair value estimate to $270 from $265. With its 1-star rating, we believe the stock is overvalued. For fiscal 2024, we expect roughly $163 billion in sales (versus $154 billion prior), a 13.4% operating margin (14% prior), and $15.12 in EPS ($15.31). We raised our 2024 sales outlook by roughly $9 billion and our EBITDA by around $500 million, as we expect a roughly 80% contribution in the second quarter and full contributions from SRS in the back half of fiscal 2024 tempered by integration and acquisition expenses.

Read more about Home Depot’s fair value estimate.

Economic Moat Rating

We assign Home Depot a wide moat rating. As the largest global home improvement retailer, Home Depot possesses a competitive edge owing to its brand intangible asset and cost advantage. Over the past 10 years, Home Depot’s sales growth has outpaced its industry’s average growth of 5.3% by 170 basis points annually. We surmise the company’s strong brand equity and extensive scale should enable incremental market share gains in the highly fragmented $950 billion North American home improvement market, on top of the 16% market share it has amassed thus far (given roughly $153 billion in sales in 2023).

Read more about Home Depot’s economic moat.

Financial Strength

Home Depot has had no concerns tapping the credit markets to finance the business in recent years. The firm raised $10 billion in debt during the first half of 2024 to finance part of its $18.25 billion acquisition of SRS Distribution. This should leave Home Depot with a total debt above $50 billion at the end of the second quarter. Management has halted share repurchases with higher expected debt service as a result of the pending acquisition. However, we model share repurchases to continue over the long run (with the new $15 billion share repurchase program authorized in August 2023). Including the impact of the SRS acquisition, EBIT is forecast to cover the net interest expense 11 times at the end of 2024.

Strong free cash flow to the firm (averaging about 10% of sales over the past three years) supports higher leverage, and we expect the company will stay within its targeted adjusted debt/EBITDAR metric of 2 times over the long term. The balance sheet’s more than $26 billion in net property, plant, and equipment provides an asset base to secure debt if necessary.

Read more about Home Depot’s financial strength.

Risk and Uncertainty

We give Home Depot a Low Uncertainty Rating, owing to its strong brand recognition, which has helped stabilize sales through the cycle. Sales are largely driven by greater consumer willingness to spend on category goods, with stable existing-home price growth and decent turnover. Thanks to the maintenance, repair, and operations business, pro revenue could be less cyclical, as the maintenance side can prove more consistent. In uncertain economic times, consumers remain in their homes, embarking on improvement projects and boosting do-it-yourself revenue. Alternatively, when home prices rise, the wealth effect generates a psychological boost, reinvigorating professional sales thanks to a higher willingness to spend on big projects. A diverse consumer base helps normalize revenue even in uneven times. Currently, about half of sales are in the do-it-yourself arena, while the rest is generated from the pro customer.

Although new competitors could set up shop on Home Depot’s turf, we think new players would be hard-pressed to offer similar product prices, as it likely wouldn’t have vendor relationships of the same magnitude. Ultimately, the biggest brands in home retailing will still want the biggest partners for distribution, leaving a new peer in a precarious position when acquiring enough of the most sought-after products to satisfy demand.

Read more about Home Depot’s risk and uncertainty.

HD Bulls Say

• Home Depot’s continued investments in supply chain and merchandising should improve productivity and support its leadership in the home improvement market.
• The company has returned $73 billion to shareholders through dividends and share buybacks over the past five years, nearly 20% of its market cap. In our outlook, we forecast Home Depot to return nearly $85 billion to shareholders over the next five years.
• The addressable MRO market is around $100 billion, and Interline and HD Supply make up a low-double-digit share, leaving meaningful upside up for grabs.

HD Bears Say

• Weak consumer spending, higher interest rates, or an economic downturn could hinder sales for home improvement projects and affect Home Depot’s growth.
• IT and supply chain improvement gains could prove more challenging to achieve, as simpler efforts have already borne fruit. Further productivity efforts could face some implementation risks, creating inconsistent profitability.
• As home improvement demand continues normalizing, consumers could shift discretionary spending away from home improvements into other discretionary categories.

This article was compiled by Krutang Desai.