Home improvement giant Home Depot (HD) certainly knows how to get the word out about its products, and one of its favorite ways to do that might be a bit unexpected: radio. As it turns out, Home Depot is the leader in United States radio advertising buying, and has been for quite some time now. This news, coupled with an earnings report best described as mixed, left investors cold. Home Depot shares plunged nearly 3.5% in Tuesday morning’s trading.
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Home Depot landed the number one slot on the Media Matters Spot Ten list, a list that tracks radio advertisers by the number of advertising spots they buy, and then ranks them accordingly. Home Depot purchased a whopping 70,458 ad spots in the last week, which was up close to 13,000 spots against the number it purchased the week prior.
By way of comparison, Procter & Gamble (PG) picked up just 50,870 slots for Vicks, which put it at a distant second even against Home Depot’s figures from last week. Insurance company Progressive (PGR) came in at third place with a much closer difference of 47,132 ads purchased. That Home Depot is ramping up its ad spend going into the holiday shopping season is really not much of a surprise, as it looks to overcome several factors working against it.
Speaking of Factors
Home Depot’s earnings report rolled out this morning, and showed how badly the home improvement retailer needed a shot in the arm. Between a reduced amount of storm damage to homes and a consumer still skittish over high interest rates and thus hesitant to take out loans for home improvement, Home Depot lost ground.
This left Home Depot in an odd position. It lowered its adjusted earnings forecast for fiscal 2025, which is a problem, but it also raised its expectations on sales growth. Investors likely also balked at the fact that Home Depot has missed profit expectations for the third quarter in a row.
Is Home Depot a Good Long-Term Buy?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Strong Buy consensus rating on HD stock based on 19 Buys and seven Holds assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After an 11.99% loss in its share price over the past year, the average HD price target of $440.42 per share implies 27.76% upside potential.
