Not long ago, we heard about home improvement giant Home Depot (HD) and its use of parking lot surveillance in the form of license plate readers. This move rubbed a lot of customers the wrong way. Some were sufficiently annoyed to get together and fire up a class-action lawsuit. The news did not sit well with shareholders, who sent shares sliding down over 2% in Friday’s trading.
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Basically, the suit claims that the parking lot trackers were doing too good a job, and tracking everybody, whether there was a problem or not. That meant a lot of people who did nothing wrong found themselves being tracked as well, and without any sort of consent given. Moreover, the suit claims, data was subsequently shared with law enforcement, which gave rise to further privacy concerns as well as civil liberties issues.
While Home Depot does have some motivation to make its parking lots safer, a system that tracks individual vehicle arrival and departure times might be going a bit too far. But even if Home Depot is completely in the right, shoppers may not agree, and go somewhere else. That cuts into Home Depot revenues at a time when it needs every shopper it can get.
Memorial Day Sales Firing Up
With Memorial Day arriving a week from Monday, it is no surprise that Home Depot is firing up a big sale to go along with the holiday. It should also be no surprise that Home Depot will offer up everything from lawn and garden supplies to power tools for the event, as this is the prime season for getting outside and putting these things to use.
Home Depot will also bring out some big new deals to draw interest, including as much as $1,000 off major appliances and discounts of 40% off certain kinds of patio furniture. Mulch, potting soil, and smart home security systems will also be on hand, helping to improve your environment for less.
Is Home Depot a Good Long-Term Buy?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Strong Buy consensus rating on HD stock based on 17 Buys and four Holds assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 20.07% loss in its share price over the past year, the average HD price target of $412.26 per share implies 37.66% upside potential.
