The Home Depot Inc. (HD)☆

The Home Depot is the largest U.S. home-improvement retailer, serving both do-it-yourself customers and professional contractors.

HD is a member of the S&P 500. It sits in the Consumer Discretionary sector. That sector covers retailers, automakers and leisure companies whose sales rise and fall with consumer confidence.

The Home Depot Inc. trades on the NYSE under the ticker symbol HD. The most recent market data puts the share price at about $308.24. That is up 4.31% on the session. At that price the company is worth roughly $307.53B.

Over the past 52 weeks, HD has traded between $277.15 and $397.63. Shares change hands at a trailing price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of about 21.5. The P/E ratio sets the share price against a year of earnings. A higher number means the market is paying more for each dollar the company earns. HD also pays a dividend. It yields around 3.02% at the current price.

HD is one of the larger names in the Consumer Discretionary sector, so investors follow it closely. It tends to move with the rest of the sector. This page sums up each HD story as it breaks, and tags it bullish, bearish or neutral.

Size matters here as well. The S&P 500 is weighted by market value. HD is large enough that its own share price nudges the whole index. So it is worth watching even for investors who only hold index funds.