Topic: How To Invest

Pat: What do you think about Home Depot and Lowe’s?

Article Excerpt

Home Depot, $100.43, symbol HD on New York (Shares outstanding: 1.3 billion; Market cap: $132.3 billion; www.homedepot.com), operates warehouse-style home improvement stores that average 104,000 square feet, plus an additional 24,000-square-foot garden centre. Each outlet typically carries 30,000 to 40,000 items. The company now has 2,269 locations in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico and Guam. In the three months ended November 2, 2014, Home Depot’s sales rose 5.4%, to $20.5 billion from $19.5 billion a year earlier. Earnings per share rose 20.8%, to $1.16 from $0.96. That includes a $28-million charge the company incurred for a data breach in the latest quarter. However, that was offset by a $100-million gain tied to the sale of part of its stake in HD Supply Holdings Inc. HD Supply offers construction, repair and maintenance products exclusively to business customers, such as professional contractors, and maintenance professionals. Home Depot’s sales rose despite the data breach, which the company disclosed in September 2014. In all, hackers stole about…