UPDATE: J.P. Morgan Reiterates Overweight Rating, Raises PT on The Home Depot

In a report published Wednesday, J.P. Morgan & Co. reiterated its Overweight rating on The Home Depot

, and raised its price target from $53.00 to $57.00. J.P. Morgan noted, “We remain encouraged by HD's comp acceleration in July and believe this has continued into August. HD stated it is ‘pleased' with the start to the quarter and we interpret this as ~4% comps thus far into the quarter. Comparing to guidance of ~2.3% total comp, HD appears to be adding in some prudence to trends considering Hurricane Irene (100 bp comp lift), weather variability, and general macro uncertainty/volatility. We are currently modeling 3Q comps of 2.5% (3.0% in the U.S.) and 4Q comps of 0.7% (1.5% in the U.S.). The latter is more conservative than management commentary that 2Q comps of 2.1% will represent the low point for the year.” The Home Depot closed on Tuesday at $54.71.