BTIG Starts Home Depot With A Buy Rating, Says Co Has A 'laser focus on ROIC'

Wednesday evening BTIG's Alan Rifkin launched coverage of Home Depot HD with a Buy ratings and a $155 PT. He is positive on the company's 'laser-focused' approach to ROIC through acceptance of the company's maturity level. Accepting maturity has enable shareholders to benefit from positive returns while simultaneously maintains stable earnings growth.

Home Depot has contained the desire to increase the number stores it has and this focuse has helped the firm avoid the pitfalls others make which allows the company to avoid damaging profitability and ROIC.
Rifkin says: "We believe Home Depot can grow the top line by 5.5-6.5% annually over the next 3 years, driven by same store sales of 3.5-5.3%. We believe by 2018, the potential exists for Home Depot to increase its EBIT margin to 15.2% from 13.5% at year-end 2015."

Rifkin expects Home Depot to aggressively buyback shares in the coming 18-24 months and boost EPS growth to 14-15 percent annually through 2018.

Shares of Home Depot closed Wednesday's regular session at $131.78, down $0.34 or 0.26 percent.