Home Depot (HD) closed at $358.98 in the latest trading session, marking a -1.33% move from the prior day. This change lagged the S&P 500's daily loss of 1.22%. At the same time, the Dow lost 0.19%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 0.54%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the home-improvement retailer had lost 9.97% over the past month. This has lagged the Retail-Wholesale sector's loss of 9.72% and the S&P 500's loss of 6.58% in that time.

Wall Street will be looking for positivity from Home Depot as it approaches its next earnings report date. This is expected to be February 22, 2022. The company is expected to report EPS of $3.20, up 16.79% from the prior-year quarter. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $34.61 billion, up 7.27% from the year-ago period.

For the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $15.47 per share and revenue of $150.01 billion, which would represent changes of +28.6% and +13.55%, respectively, from the prior year.

It is also important to note the recent changes to analyst estimates for Home Depot. These recent revisions tend to reflect the evolving nature of short-term business trends. As a result, we can interpret positive estimate revisions as a good sign for the company's business outlook.

Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. Investors can capitalize on this by using the Zacks Rank. This model considers these estimate changes and provides a simple, actionable rating system.

The Zacks Rank system, which ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has an impressive outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks generating an average annual return of +25% since 1988. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.12% lower within the past month. Home Depot is currently a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Investors should also note Home Depot's current valuation metrics, including its Forward P/E ratio of 23.52. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 11.19, so we one might conclude that Home Depot is trading at a premium comparatively.

Meanwhile, HD's PEG ratio is currently 1.92. This popular metric is similar to the widely-known P/E ratio, with the difference being that the PEG ratio also takes into account the company's expected earnings growth rate. The Building Products - Retail was holding an average PEG ratio of 1.67 at yesterday's closing price.

The Building Products - Retail industry is part of the Retail-Wholesale sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 11, putting it in the top 5% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our individual industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

To follow HD in the coming trading sessions, be sure to utilize Zacks.com.

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