Home improvement giant Home Depot (HD) has been hit particularly hard by raids from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) division of the government of late, which is sparking protests and even some sales damage. The hits kept on coming as multiple new locations saw ICE go back for another go, and investors responded predictably. Home Depot shares slipped fractionally in Thursday morning’s trading.
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One particular raid sparked protest reprisals in short order. Recently, arrests at a Home Depot in The Dalles in Oregon prompted about 200 people to gather outside the store in protest, calling the move “unprecedented.” This time, reports note, ICE agents actually went inside the Home Depot to carry out their arrest. Video of the incident followed, sparking outrage. Home Depot employees, meanwhile, were forbidden to discuss the event, reports noted.
A second similar incident took place at the Warrenton Home Depot, also in Oregon, reports noted. An unknown number of individuals were detained in this event, and this follows a similar event which found two people detained by ICE at a Walmart (WMT) in the same general area.
Closed For Christmas
And yes, Home Depot will indeed be closed for Christmas Day this year, so mark the day on your calendar now in case you were planning to go out that Thursday and pick up some shingles or the like. Moreover, you may even want to check your local location’s hours in case you were considering last minute shopping at the Home Depot, as some stores may even close early.
The upshot, though, is that stores will be open on both New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day, with stores closing at six on New Year’s Eve, to reopen at nine in the morning on New Year’s Day. The move is generally acknowledged to be a morale booster for Home Depot employees, allowing them to spend time with family and friends instead of whoever they run into at work.
Is Home Depot a Good Long-Term Buy?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Moderate Buy consensus rating on HD stock based on 18 Buys, five Holds and one Sell assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 16.63% loss in its share price over the past year, the average HD price target of $409 per share implies 15.72% upside potential.
