Home improvement giant Home Depot (HD) may be having some issues dealing with new competitors offering delivery options, but it is still doing surprisingly well with its digital strategy as it is today. New reports are spelling out how well Home Depot’s digital strategy is faring, and investors are responding accordingly. Home Depot shares were up fractionally in Tuesday afternoon’s trading.
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Reports noted that, based on the numbers from the second fiscal quarter of 2025, online comparable sales were up 12%. This is pretty good in isolation, but comparatively, it gets even better. Overall comparable sales were up just 1%, which makes it pretty clear that the online sales were up in isolation, as opposed to being part of a broader overall trend.
There were several reasons why the online plan is working as well as it is, and management seemed eager to point them out. Machine learning, for example, is improving the “ship from best location” system and narrowing delivery times. Direct delivery might be faster, but Home Depot has plenty of next-day and even same-day delivery options. Home Depot’s “buy it again” feature is also helping, especially on projects where you need a lot of the same item.
More Depot Dogs
There is an underlying theme starting to develop about people taking their dogs with them to Home Depot. We have seen it a couple times already, and one more event added on to the growing pile as a pair of Dachshunds hopped into a Home Depot cart and took a ride around the store.
Of particular interest to the Dachshunds was the range of Halloween displays on hand. Giant skeletons, glowing pumpkins and more set the Dachshunds to barking vociferously at the items. The video is commonly considered adorable, and might well prompt Home Depot marketing to take a closer look at why people are bringing their dogs in. Home Depot already has a pet supplies section; perhaps an expansion is in order?
Is Home Depot a Good Long-Term Buy?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Strong Buy consensus rating on HD stock based on 18 Buys and six Holds assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 10.3% rally in its share price over the past year, the average HD price target of $445.14 per share implies 5.55% upside potential.
