Good News Follows Home Depot Stock (NYSE:HD) to Close 2025, Shares Slip Anyway

In a display of almost inspiring pessimism, new reports suggested that home improvement giant Home Depot (HD) had quite a bit to look forward to in 2026, which is now hours away for much of the world. But despite this positive outlook, Home Depot investors expressed pessimism by selling, and lowering share prices fractionally in Wednesday morning's trading. .Claim 70% Off TipRanks This Holiday SeasonUnlock hedge fund-level data and powerful investing tools for smarter, sharper decisions Stay ahead of the market with the latest news and analysis and maximize your portfolio's potential Home Depot shares have not done well in 2025; reports note that shares are down around 11% for the year to date. But there are also some positive signs suggesting that 2026 could be a banner year for Home Depot. The first is an improved likelihood of rate cuts at the Federal Reserve. While this has been a bone of contention in Washington for some time now, the Consumer Price Index numbers that came out of November were not what many expected. This opens room for a drop in rates, which would be huge for Home Depot. Throw in the imminent departure of Jerome Powell, and that opens up possibilities. Further, home prices are starting to moderate, and may ultimately return to pre-COVID-19 levels in the next year. Finally, stocks in similar areas are getting upgrades from analysts, suggesting that the environment will be more welcoming going forward. And If We Can Stop the Thieving, Even Better But Home Depot also closed out 2025 with another theft, as reports from California noted a grand theft incident that hit a Home Depot very early Monday morning. A wood cutting machine, along with two high-end grills, were taken from the store and its rental section. The value of the goods taken was not released, and unfortunately, neither was a description of the suspects. But reports did note that the alleged thieves did flee the scene in an "…older model Dodge Ram." This should limit the pool of suspects to several thousand or so, depending on how many older model Dodge Rams survived being older model Dodge Rams. Is Home Depot a Good Long-Term Buy? Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Moderate Buy consensus rating on HD stock based on 17 Buys, five Holds and one Sell assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 10.84% loss in its share price over the past year, the average HD price target of $401.95 per share implies 16.12% upside potential.