Home Depot (NYSE:HD) Price Hikes Loom—But ’It Won’t Be Broad-Based’
Home Depot customers brace for selective price increases as the home improvement giant signals targeted adjustments rather than across-the-board hikes.
Strategic Inflation Response
The retailer focuses margin pressure on specific product categories instead of blanket increases—acknowledging consumer sensitivity while protecting profitability.
Wall Street's Predictable Amnesia
Analysts cheer the 'disciplined' approach, conveniently forgetting how 'temporary' surcharges somehow become permanent fixtures on balance sheets.
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Following the quarterly results reporting earlier today—which likely had quite a bit more to do with Home Depot’s stock price gains—Richard McPhail, Home Depot’s chief financial officer, noted that some prices were going to have to go up at Home Depot thanks to the taxes on imports. Some imported goods, McPhail noted, saw their tariff rates go up substantially even from just last quarter. So there needed to be price increases accordingly.
However, McPhail noted, not every price was going to go up. McPhail told shoppers to look for “…modest price movement in some categories…” He also noted that the price hikes WOULD not be “…broad based.” With just under half of Home Depot’s inventory coming from suppliers outside the United States, that could send quite a few prices up. But Home Depot has been working to diversify its supply chain farther to reduce the dependence on foreign producers.
Just What Do They Know?
Then, in a surprise move, Home Depot found itself the target of a new class-action lawsuit. Started by Benjamin Jankowski, the suit alleges that Home Depot “…collects biometric data without consent.” Such a MOVE would violate the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA), and since the suit was filed in Illinois federal court, it would seem to qualify.
The suit alleges that Home Depot used facial recognition scanning, a development first announced back in August 2023 when Home Depot revealed it was using “computer vision” in stores. Home Depot expanded that development, such that, by May 2024, it was using facial recognition at all its self-checkout stations. And without publicly-available retention policies and a lack of informed written consent, Home Depot effectively violated the BIPA. Home Depot did not comment in response at last report.
Is Home Depot a Good Long-Term Buy?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Strong Buy consensus rating on HD stock based on 19 Buys and six Holds assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 7.47% rally in its share price over the past year, the average HD price target of $430.68 per share implies 5.98% upside potential.
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