Home Depot Stock (NYSE:HD) Slips as it Rolls Out the Halloween Collection

Business Insider

6 days ago

Is it too early to start thinking about Halloween? Not at home improvement giant Home Depot (HD), where the new Halloween collection is already rolling out. Granted, the air may have nowhere near a chill to it right now, but the slowly waning daylight is starting to get some people in the right frame of mind. Investors were not among them, however, and they sent shares down fractionally in Tuesday afternoon's trading.
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Halloween starts August 4 at the Home Depot, with products available online or through the app. Actual storefront arrivals, though, will take a bit longer, reports suggest. There will be 'something for everyone,' notes decorative holiday merchant Aubrey Horowitz. And indeed, from big to small, Home Depot will have the fright fuel to make your front yard spooky for Halloween.
Starting off, the Giant-Sized Skelly will be back. It's a 12-foot skeleton coming in for $299. Sitting Skelly's Dog and Skelly's Cat, both five feet tall, will be in play, and the seven-foot edition of Skelly's Dog will also make a comeback. Skelly is also getting a bit of an upgrade in the 6.5-foot Ultra Skelly. Animated, and app-controlled, it can offer several stock phrases or 30 seconds of custom recording to allow you to put your own spin on the proceedings. Home Depot has even joined forces with Universal (CMCSA) to bring out new licensed character props, including long-time fan favorites Chucky and Tiffany of Child's Play fame.
The Home Depot Effect
A new problem emerged recently for Home Depot, and it is connected to its status as ground zero for immigration enforcement. Reports in South Sacramento note that businesses surrounding the Home Depot are starting to see customer counts drop off after the recent border patrol operation hit the Home Depot parking lot.
Some business owners suggested the problem was already starting even before the border patrol incidents started up. One even traced it back to the second arrival of President Trump in office. But even that business owner said that things were getting worse as a result of the raids. One business owner, a woman named Maria who runs Tortas Sinaloa, noted that '…everyone got scared, and everyone was in panic mode…' after the raids began. This will likely do few favors for the Home Depot brand.
Is Home Depot a Good Long-Term Buy?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Strong Buy consensus rating on HD stock based on 18 Buys and six Holds assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 3.72% rally in its share price over the past year, the average HD price target of $428.12 per share implies 14% upside potential.
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