Home improvement giant Home Depot (HD) has made a lot out of offering better service for professional builders. Its recent acquisitions make that much quite clear. But Home Depot also made some changes to a rewards program that should go even farther toward helping improve service for the pro builder. Yet that does not seem to have helped much with shareholders. Shares of Home Depot were down fractionally in Wednesday afternoon’s trading.
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Home Depot calls it Pro Xtra, and those interested can join the program via the website, through the app, or at the Pro Desk at Home Depot store locations. With membership, not only do members get access to better prices—including “customized pricing on frequently purchased items”—but also access to project planning tools and the entire product catalog.
Moreover, there are 20% rewards on paints, stains, primers and solvents, access to specific rental equipment items, and access to an internal, branded digital wallet called the HD Pass. Users can not only make purchases, but also collect rewards points, use any established perks, and even keep track of receipts in one interface. This will come in particularly handy at tax time.
Still More Dogs
And once again, Home Depot demonstrates that it is all about the dogs, as Arthur, a Newfoundland mix, slips into the mass of Halloween decorations and almost looks like a bit of a lawn ornament himself. Granted, a bit of a goofy one, but not necessarily out of place.
Arthur’s exposure landed him plenty of positive comments, with the Weather Channel asserting via social media that they would “…take 10.” It is just one more bit of positive, dog-friendly news for Home Depot, and probably the kind of thing its marketing operations should be capitalizing on. These pictures seem to come up with an odd frequency, and Home Depot could build on that as a dog-friendly attraction and home improvement superstore.
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 six Holds assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 7.03% loss in its share price over the past year, the average HD price target of $446.30 per share implies 16.38% upside potential.
