Home Depot shares gain the most in a month on Tuesday, company’s quarterly EPS outstrip market expectations

Home Depot Incs (HD) fourth-quarter earnings per share topped market expectations, supported by strong same store sales in the United States.

Home Depot shares registered their largest daily surge since January 23rd on Tuesday, while also marking their second consecutive session of gains. The stock went up 1.41% ($2.02) to $145.02, after touching an intraday high at $145.65 and also the highest price level ever recorded. In the week ended on February 19th the shares of the home improvement chain added 2.25% to their market value compared to a week ago, which marked a second consecutive period of gains and also the best performance since the week ended on December 11th. The stock has extended its advance to 5.41% so far during the current month, following a 2.61% surge in January. The latter has been a third straight month of gains. For the entire past year, Home Depot shares gained 1.38%.

The chains earnings per share were reported at $1.44 during the quarter ended on December 30th. In comparison, the median estimate by analysts had pointed to earnings of $1.33 per share.

Total revenue was reported to have increased to $22.2 billion during the fourth quarter from $20.98 billion during the same period a year earlier.

Home Depots same store sales rose 5.8% during the quarter, while exceeding market consensus pointing to a 3.5% growth. The retailers same store sales in the United States went up 6.2%, bolstered by higher demand for building materials and appliances from contractors and consumers in recent months.

The boom in home remodeling projects has had a favorable impact on the home-improvement industry amid continuing recovery in the US housing sector. According to data by the National Association of Realtors (NAR), the average price of an existing home rose 5.7% to reach $235 000 during the last three months of 2016 compared to the same period a year ago.

At the same time, the home remodeling index had climbed to a new record high level of 106.1 during the fourth quarter of 2016, a report by Metrostudy showed.

Daily and Weekly Pivot Levels

With the help of the Camarilla calculation method, todays levels of importance for the Home Depot stock are presented as follows:

R1 – $145.24
R2 – $145.46
R3 (Range Resistance – Sell) – $145.68
R4 (Long Breakout) – $146.34
R5 (Breakout Target 1) – $147.11
R6 (Breakout Target 2) – $147.45

S1 – $144.80
S2 – $144.58
S3 (Range Support – Buy) – $144.36
S4 (Short Breakout) – $143.70
S5 (Breakout Target 1) – $142.93
S6 (Breakout Target 2) – $142.59

By using the traditional method of calculation, the weekly levels of importance for Home Depot Inc (HD) are presented as follows:

Central Pivot Point – $141.72
R1 – $144.40
R2 – $145.79
R3 – $148.47
R4 – $151.14

S1 – $140.33
S2 – $137.65
S3 – $136.26
S4 – $134.86