The Home Depot, Inc. (HD Quick QuoteHD - Free Report) has been in investors’ good books for quite some time, which is well-reflected from its stock price performance. Evidently, this Georgia-based company’s shares have jumped 13.8% year to date, outperforming the Zacks categorized Building Products – Retail/Wholesale industry’s growth of 10.2%. So, let’s take a closer look at the various parameters, which have been driving this Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) company with long-term earnings growth rate of 13% and a VGM Score of “B”.



Home Depot Vs Industry Scorecard



Robust Earnings History & Outlook

Home Depot has a spectacular earnings and sales surprise history. This leading player in the highly-fragmented home improvement industry has been delivering better-than-expected bottom-line results for the five years. The company’s top line has topped estimates consistently for the last 12 quarters. Further, the company has been witnessing year-over-year growth in revenues as well as EPS for a long time now. A snapshot of these improvements is visible in the following chart.



In last reported first-quarter fiscal 2017, Home Depot maintained these trends. The company continued to reap the benefits of the housing market recovery and high demand. Following the sturdy results, the company raised its earnings per share guidance for fiscal 2017 to $7.15 from $7.13, reflecting year-over-year growth of nearly 11%. All these factors inspire optimism about Home Depot’s future performance.

Analysts were also not far behind in raising the estimates, as evident from upward revision in the Zacks Consensus Estimate. Evidently, over the last 60 days, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for fiscal 2017 and 2018 increased from $7.19 to $7.23 and $8.07 to $8.11, respectively. Clearly, analysts polled by Zacks are convinced about the stock’s upbeat performance in the future.

Home Depot, Inc. (The) Price and Consensus

Well, Home Depot’s splendid performance has been primarily driven by its superb growth endeavors, which are focused on improving customers’ experience. Additionally, its efficient capital allocation has been an attraction for investors.

Splendid Growth Endeavors

Home Depot has been implementing several initiatives to drive long-term growth. In response to the evolving retail environment, where digital and physical stores go hand in hand, the company remains keen on building its interconnected capabilities. In this regard, the company has taken a number of measures in 2016 including redesigning its website with enhanced features. The benefits from these initiatives were evident from online sales growth of nearly 23% in first-quarter fiscal 2017. Further, Home Depot’s interconnected strategy goes beyond the dot.com investments as it continues to invest in fulfillment options to meet the growing demand through the launch of its customer order management system (COM) and the Buy Online Deliver From Store (BODFS) capability.

All these endeavors, combined with Home Depot’s concentration on enhancing store operations are likely to boost its top- and bottom-line in the long run.

Disciplined Capital Strategy

Home Depot has always maintained a disciplined capital allocation strategy. The company has remained focused on making investments to develop its business while using the excess cash to enhance shareholder returns through dividend payouts and share buybacks. As evidence of progress on the strategic initiatives and commitment to reward shareholders, the company recently raised its long-term dividend payout ratio to 55% of net earnings. Alongside, management announced a 29% hike in quarterly dividend to 89 cents. Moving to share buybacks, the company bought back 8.5 million shares for nearly $1.25 billion in first-quarter fiscal 2017. In fiscal 2017, the company targets total share repurchases worth $5 billion, with plans to buy back shares worth $3.75 billion through the rest of the fiscal year.

All said, we believe that Home Depot is moving in the appropriate direction. With its perfect initiatives and solid background, this home improvement retailer is most likely to keep its momentum going.

Looking for More? Target These 3 Retail Stocks

Other top-ranked stocks in the same sector include Fastenal Company (FAST Quick QuoteFAST - Free Report) , Lumber Liquidators Holdings, Inc (LL Quick QuoteLL - Free Report) and Burlington Stores, Inc. (BURL Quick QuoteBURL - Free Report) .

Fastenal, with a long-term EPS growth rate of 16% carries a Zacks Rank #2. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Lumber Liquidators has a long-term growth rate of 27.5%. The stock carries a Zacks Rank #2 as well.

Carrying a Zacks Rank #2, Burlington has a long-term EPS growth rate of 15.9%. The stock also possesses a sturdy earnings surprise history.

More Stock News: This Is Bigger than the iPhone!

It could become the mother of all technological revolutions. Apple sold a mere 1 billion iPhones in 10 years but a new breakthrough is expected to generate more than 27 billion devices in just 3 years, creating a $1.7 trillion market.

Zacks has just released a Special Report that spotlights this fast-emerging phenomenon and 6 tickers for taking advantage of it. If you don't buy now, you may kick yourself in 2020.  Click here for the 6 trades >>