Home Depot (NYSE:HD) Same-store Sales Improving

Home Depot (NYSE:HD) their analyst day, and one of the more important bits of news coming away from it so far is the improvement of their same-store sales, something that surprised FBR Capital.

They said, "HD is hosting its analyst day in Boston. In conjunction with this, the company raised its 2010E outlook slightly (a touch of sales and a touch of EBIT margin upside . . . more EBIT margin). In addition, HD set 2011E sales and EPS guidance for the first time, as we outline below. The current same-store sales trend (1.5% implied comp for 4Q10E) is better than we had expected and reflects an acceleration in two- and three-year stacked trends. This keeps us constructive with the group, as the stocks have been in the process of benefiting from an apparent window-dressing here in year-end Guidance for 2011E brackets the Street consensus of $2.22, and we raise estimates to reflect this mean. Our price target stays the same for HD at $35. We rate HD Market Perform and Lowe's (NYSE:LOW) Outperform."

FBR Capital maintains a "Market Perform" on Home Depot, which was trading at $33.99, up $0.44, or 1.31 percent, as of 12:37 PM EST. FBR has a price target of $35 on them.