“Focus on Improving Customer Experience”: Home Depot Stock (NYSE:HD) Notches Up as Live Tracking Gets Fleshed Out

We heard, not so long ago, about home improvement giant Home Depot HD +0.44% ▲ and its plans to bring out live tracking systems on larger items. The plan sounded good on the surface, even if some details were quietly glossed over. Now, Home Depot’s senior vice president of enterprise delivery experience Dee Walk went on record about some of those missing points. The response from shareholders was reasonably positive, based on the fractional gain in Home Depot shares in Friday morning’s trading.

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Walk noted that by “large orders,” Home Depot meant just about anything that required special equipment to move. Refrigerators and other appliances certainly qualified, but so too did entire pallets of lumber or drywall. This made it a particularly useful feature for the pro set, but do-it-yourselfers would find value here too.

Walk also elaborated on what kind of data would be kept from using the live tracking, noting, “Everything we gather will focus on improving customer experience.” The data kept will be particularly useful in improving delivery operations, like optimizing routes. This in turn makes deliveries more efficient and improves environmental impact as well.

Analysts Enthusiastic

Recently, a report from Cowen & Co. analysts kept the Buy rating in place. The original price target was also left in place, reports noted, which suggested some key points about Cowen analysts’ perception of Home Depot stock.

With a Buy rating in place, that represents a clear sign of confidence in Home Depot’s ability to turn in revenue despite economic conditions that would suggest a harder slog ahead. Cowen analysts pointed out that Home Depot’s channel management systems are doing particularly well here. Home Depot’s continued efforts to provide value for the do-it-yourselfer and the professional—as particularly seen in the aforementioned delivery tracking tools—should go a long way on this front.

Is Home Depot a Good Long-Term Buy?

Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Strong Buy consensus rating on HD stock based on 17 Buys and three Holds assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 3.52% loss in its share price over the past year, the average HD price target of $422.95 per share implies 24.12% upside potential.

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