Dow Today: Home Depot (HD) Leads The Day Higher, Wal-Mart Stores (WMT) Lags

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) closed up 67 points (+0.5%) at 12,640. During the day, 631.9 million shares of the 30 Dow components have changed hands vs. an average daily trading volume of 700.6 million. The NYSE advances/declines ratio closed at 2,073 issues advancing vs. 939 declining with 123 unchanged.

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The Dow component that led the way higher today was Home Depot (NYSE:HD), which sported a 76-cent gain (+1.5%) bringing the stock to $52.02. This single gain lifted the Dow Jones Industrial Average by 5.75 points or roughly accounting for 8.6% of the Dow's overall gain. Volume for Home Depot ended the day at 16.3 million shares traded vs. an average daily trading volume of 11.4 million shares.

Home Depot has a market cap of $80.86 billion and is part of the services sector and retail industry. Shares are up 22% year to date as of Thursday's close. The stock's dividend yield sits at 2.2%.

The Home Depot, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, operates as a home improvement retailer. The company's stores sell building materials, and home improvement and lawn and garden products to do-it-yourself, do-it-for-me (at D-I-F-M), and professional customers. The company has a P/E ratio of 19.9, 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 solid stock price performance, impressive record of earnings per share growth, compelling growth in net income, revenue growth and notable return on equity. 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 Wal-Mart Stores (NYSE:WMT), which lagged the broader Dow index with a 36-cent decline (-0.5%) bringing the stock to $67.34. Volume for Wal-Mart Stores ended the day at 7.9 million shares traded vs. an average daily trading volume of 11.3 million shares.

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Wal-Mart Stores has a market cap of $231.84 billion and is part of the services sector and retail industry. Shares are up 13.3% year to date as of Thursday's close. The stock's dividend yield sits at 2.3%.

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. operates retail stores in various formats worldwide. It operates retail stores, restaurants, discount stores, supermarkets, supercenters, hypermarkets, warehouse clubs, apparel stores, Sam's Clubs, and neighborhood markets, as well as walmart.com; and samsclub.com. The company has a P/E ratio of 14.7, equal to the average retail industry P/E ratio and below the S&P 500 P/E ratio of 17.7.

TheStreet Ratings rates Wal-Mart Stores as a buy. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its revenue growth, solid stock price performance, growth in earnings per share, increase in net income and good cash flow from operations. We feel these strengths outweigh the fact that the company shows low profit margins.

• You can view the full Wal-Mart Stores Ratings Report.

For more information on Home Depot Inc. click any of the following:

• Home Depot Inc. Stock Price

• Home Depot Inc. Analyst Ratings

• Home Depot Inc. Key Stats & Profile

• Home Depot Inc. Earnings

• Home Depot Inc. Ratio Comparison

• Home Depot Inc. Growth Rates

• Home Depot Inc. Balance Sheet

• Home Depot Inc. Cash Flow

• Home Depot Inc. Income Statement