Dow Today: Home Depot (HD) Leads The Day Higher, Pfizer (PFE) Lags

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) is trading down 18.0 points (-0.1%) at 13,189 as of Monday, Aug 13, 2012, 9:35 a.m. ET. During this time, 15.9 million shares of the 30 Dow components have changed hands vs. an average daily trading volume of 661.9 million. The NYSE advances/declines ratio sits at 1,157 issues advancing vs. 1,504 declining with 167 unchanged.

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The Dow component leading the way higher looks to be Home Depot (NYSE:HD), which is sporting a nine-cent gain (+0.2%) bringing the stock to $53.15. Volume for Home Depot currently sits at 355,144 shares traded vs. an average daily trading volume of 11.7 million shares.

Home Depot has a market cap of $80.8 billion and is part of the services sector and retail industry. Shares are up 25.6% year to date as of Friday'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 20.1, 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 back the Dow today is Pfizer (NYSE:PFE), which is lagging the broader Dow index with a 20-cent decline (-0.8%) bringing the stock to $23.74. This single loss is lowering the Dow Jones Industrial Average by 1.51 points or roughly accounting for 8.4% of the Dow's overall loss. Volume for Pfizer currently sits at 1.3 million shares traded vs. an average daily trading volume of 34.6 million shares.

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Pfizer has a market cap of $178.44 billion and is part of the health care sector and drugs industry. Shares are up 10.1% year to date as of Friday's close. The stock's dividend yield sits at 3.7%.

Pfizer Inc., a biopharmaceutical company, engages in the discovery, development, manufacture, and sale of medicines for people and animals worldwide. The company has a P/E ratio of 20.2, above the average drugs industry P/E ratio of 17.7 and above the S&P 500 P/E ratio of 17.7.

TheStreet Ratings rates Pfizer as a buy. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its solid stock price performance, growth in earnings per share, compelling growth in net income and expanding profit margins. Although the company may harbor some minor weaknesses, we feel they are unlikely to have a significant impact on results.

• You can view the full Pfizer 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