As Hurricane Maria threatens to hit the east coast, one stock remains a favourite amongst dividend investors: Home Depot (HD ).
Home Depot along with self-storage REITS such as Public Storage offer an excellent opportunity for dividend investors to go long during hurricane season. Harvey, Irma and Maria have already hit the U.S., with the last one particularly wreaking havoc on Puerto Rico. Home Depot has a significant number of stores in all three affected states. Home Depot and Lowe’s (LOW ) are big-box retailers that offer home improvement and home rebuilding products that should get significant traction from people whose homes have been destroyed by the landfall.
Home Depot was up 7.65% last month due to the anticipation of increased demand for wood and home rebuilding supplies from homeowners in the affected states. In fact, Home Depot witnessed a sales increase of $500 million for the four quarters after Superstorm Sandy hit the U.S. coast in 2012.
Dividend investors have pushed up Home Depot’s rank five places on the Most Watched Stocks List in the last 3 weeks. A stock that is typically in the lowest ranks of the sought-after list by dividend investors has suddenly seen a lot of action.
Action was also seen in UPS (UPS ) for a second week as it moved up a place from 31 to 30 in anticipation of the upcoming holiday season. JP Morgan Chase (JPM ) saw its rank move up by one spot, while Conglomerate 3M (MMM ) also moved up a notch.
Check out the changes in last week’s Most Watched Stocks List here.
Our Most Watched Stocks List is a user-generated, interest-based ranking of dividend-paying stocks, giving you a real-time snapshot of buying interest in the market. Generated by our Premium members’ watchlists, it’s aggregated and ranked by the most watched criteria.
The list has been designed to help income investors navigate the top dividend stocks being tracked by one of the world’s most advanced investing communities.
