Home improvement giant Home Depot (HD) has long had designs on the professional market. It provides a welcome hedge against conventional economic slowdown, and opens up a new revenue stream that is a little more secure. And Home Depot took another big step to secure the pro market, buying Mingledorff’s to augment its pro-focused lineup. Investors were reasonably pleased, and gave Home Depot shares a fractional boost in Wednesday morning’s trading.
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Mingledorff’s is a wholesale dealer in HVAC equipment—heating, ventilation and air conditioning—that has 42 locations over the span of five states. Much of its business is located in the southeastern United States, reports note, and HVAC distribution represents a roughly $100 billion total addressable market.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed. However, reports suggest that this deal will not impact Home Depot’s expected return to a 2x leverage ratio by the end of the second quarter of fiscal 2027. And, once that point is reached, Home Depot will likely restart its share buyback plans. In the end, Home Depot will have better access to the professional market and deliver further value in an attempt to get, or even stay, ahead of its competitors in the field.
12 New Stores This Year
Home Depot also plans to open an array of new stores in 2026 at a rate of roughly one per month on average. These 12 stores will be coming to a handful of states. States on the roster include Arizona, Arkansas, California, Florida, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas and Utah. Interestingly, Texas will get the most stores with four, Florida will get two, and each other state will get one.
Home Depot revealed these plans not long after its earnings reports made it pretty clear that it is still pulling in customers, and at a rate better than expected. The new stores should not only make it more accessible to normal customers, but also to professionals, and result in improved revenue going forward.
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 three Holds assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After an 8.62% loss in its share price over the past year, the average HD price target of $423.11 per share implies 27.63% upside potential.
