Rebuilding efforts after hurricane season are contributing to strong demand
Home Depot Inc (NYSE:HD) stock is the latest Dow component to announce third-quarter results. The home improvement retailer beat top- and bottom-line estimates and also hiked both its same-store annual sales and growth forecasts, citing strong demand on the heels of hurricane season.
HD is up 0.2% to trade at $409.39 at last check, and sports a 18.5% lead for 2024. Eyeing their third-straight daily gain today, shares are trading at their highest level in close to a month as they bounce off the 60-day moving average and draw closer to their Oct. 16, two-year high of $418.61.
There's room for optimism to grow among the brokerage bunch, with eight of 35 analysts in question calling HD a tepid "hold," while the 12-month consensus target price of $414.77 is in in line with the stock's current levels.
Options volume is already running at 4 times the intraday average volume, with 7,958 calls and 4,412 puts exchanged so far today. The most popular is the November 420 call.
Speculating with options may be an intriguing route. Options traders are pricing in relatively low volatility expectations, per HD's Schaefer's Volatility Index (SVI) of 23% that sits in the low 21st percentile of readings from the past 12 months.