shares of home depot inc hd hiked up 18 toward a record close in afternoon trading monday after oppenheimer analyst brian nagel turned bullish on the home improvement retailer citing less nearterm risks for of cyclical pullback of the home improvement sector nagel raised his rating to outperform after being at perform for the past 15 months he set a 470 price target for the stock which makes him the most bullish of the 34 analysts surveyed by factset nagel said after carefully reevaluating nearterm prospects for home depot as well as peer lowes companies low  he said that while challenges remain he is now more confident that risks of a significant transitionaltype setback for home improvement retail have diminished he also believes underlying demand growth is likely to persist even as covid19 pandemicrelated tailwinds abate which should help provide continued solid if not outsized sales and profit growth for both retailers home depots stock has soared 257 over the past three months while lowes shares have climbed 219 and the dow jones industrial average djia has slipped 04