Dow Today: Home Depot (HD) Leads The Day Higher, Chevron (CVX) Lags

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) closed down 89 points (-0.7%) at 12,801. During the day, 650.9 million shares of the 30 Dow components have changed hands vs. an average daily trading volume of 818.6 million. The NYSE advances/declines ratio closed at 705 issues advancing vs. 2,322 declining with 90 unchanged.

The Dow component that led the way higher today was Home Depot (NYSE:HD), which sported a five-cent gain (+0.1%) bringing the stock to $45.32. Volume for Home Depot ended the day at 4.5 million shares traded vs. an average daily trading volume of 10.7 million shares.

Home Depot has a market cap of $69.31 billion and is part of the services sector and retail industry. Shares are up 7.7% year to date as of Thursday's close. The stock's dividend yield sits at 2.6%.

The Home Depot Inc., together with its subsidiaries, operates as a home improvement retailer. The company's stores sell a range of building materials, home improvement products, and lawn and garden products to do-it-yourself, do-it-for-me (D-I-F-M), and professional customers. The company has a P/E ratio of 19.4, equal to the average retail industry P/E ratio and above the S&P 500 P/E ratio of 17.7.

TheStreet Ratings rates Home Depot as a buy. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its revenue growth, notable return on equity, good cash flow from operations, solid stock price performance and impressive record of earnings per share growth. We feel these strengths outweigh the fact that the company has had generally poor debt management on most measures that we evaluated.

• You can view the full Home Depot Ratings Report.

Holding the Dow back today was Chevron (NYSE:CVX), which lagged the broader Dow index with a $1.09 decline (-1%) bringing the stock to $105.28. This single loss lowered the Dow Jones Industrial Average by 8.25 points or roughly accounting for 9.3% of the Dow's overall loss. Volume for Chevron ended the day at 5.9 million shares traded vs. an average daily trading volume of 8.8 million shares.

• See our dividend calendar or top-yielding stocks list.

Chevron has a market cap of $212.53 billion and is part of the basic materials sector and energy industry. Shares are up 0.3% year to date as of Thursday's close. The stock's dividend yield sits at 3%.

Chevron Corporation, through its subsidiaries, engages in petroleum, chemicals, mining, power generation, and energy operations worldwide. It operates in two segments, Upstream and Downstream. The company has a P/E ratio of 7.9, equal to the average energy industry P/E ratio and below the S&P 500 P/E ratio of 17.7.

TheStreet Ratings rates Chevron as a buy. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its revenue growth, attractive valuation levels, notable return on equity and solid stock price performance. We feel these strengths outweigh the fact that the company has had sub par growth in net income.

• You can view the full Chevron Ratings Report.

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