Dow Today: Home Depot (HD) Leads The Day Higher, Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) Lags

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) is trading down seven points at 12,958 as of Wednesday, Feb 22, 2012, 9:35 a.m. ET. During this time, 23.6 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 sits at 1,262 issues advancing vs. 1,349 declining with 188 unchanged.

The Dow component leading the way higher looks to be Home Depot (NYSE:HD), which is sporting a 17-cent gain (+0.4%) bringing the stock to $47.09. Volume for Home Depot currently sits at 411,057 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 11.6% year to date as of Tuesday's close. The stock's dividend yield sits at 2.5%.

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 20, above the average retail industry P/E ratio of 19.4 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, solid stock price performance, impressive record of earnings per share growth and good cash flow from operations. 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 back the Dow today is Hewlett-Packard (NYSE:HPQ), which is lagging the broader Dow index with a 48-cent decline (-1.6%) bringing the stock to $28.87. This single loss is lowering the Dow Jones Industrial Average by 3.63 points or roughly accounting for 51.9% of the Dow's overall loss. Volume for Hewlett-Packard currently sits at 917,532 shares traded vs. an average daily trading volume of 17.8 million shares.

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

Hewlett-Packard has a market cap of $56.58 billion and is part of the technology sector and computer hardware industry. Shares are up 13.9% year to date as of Tuesday's close. The stock's dividend yield sits at 1.6%.

Hewlett-Packard Company and its subsidiaries provide products, technologies, software, solutions, and services to individual consumers and small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), as well as to the government, health, and education sectors worldwide. The company has a P/E ratio of 8.9, above the average computer hardware industry P/E ratio of 8.6 and below the S&P 500 P/E ratio of 17.7.

TheStreet Ratings rates Hewlett-Packard as a hold. Among the primary strengths of the company is its reasonable valuation levels, considering its current price compared to earnings, book value and other measures. At the same time, however, we also find weaknesses including deteriorating net income, poor profit margins and weak operating cash flow.

• You can view the full Hewlett-Packard Ratings Report.

For more information on Hewlett-Packard Co click any of the following:

• Hewlett-Packard Co Stock Price

• Hewlett-Packard Co Analyst Ratings

• Hewlett-Packard Co Key Stats & Profile

• Hewlett-Packard Co Earnings

• Hewlett-Packard Co Ratio Comparison

• Hewlett-Packard Co Growth Rates

• Hewlett-Packard Co Balance Sheet

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