Home Depot Puts Hughes in Stock

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Every once in a while, reading an 8-K pays off.

See, the last time I talked about construction and maintenance supply wholesaler Hughes Supply (NYSE: HUG), I mentioned how a recent 8-K revealed that it had tied up a bunch of its senior executives with non-compete agreements and the offer of cash payouts upon a change in control. I also pointed out that Motley Fool Inside Value recommendation Home Depot (NYSE: HD) was on the prowl and looking to expand its industrial/construction supply business.

Well, on Tuesday morning, the monkey touched the monolith, and Home Depot announced that it was acquiring Hughes Supply for $46.50 a share in cash -- making the deal worth a grand total of just under $3.5 billion when you include the assumed debt. Not only is Home Depot paying a 21% premium to Monday's closing price, but also it seems to be paying a premium to fair value. Not a large premium, mind you, but a premium nonetheless.

Home Depot management expects this deal to add to earnings in the first year, and it should more than double the size of its Home Depot Supply business to around $12 billion in revenue this year. As I've mentioned before, this is a big opportunity for Home Depot -- a fragmented market worth more than $400 billion a year where the company should be able to grow at double-digit rates, something that's just not going to be easy to do with its retail business.

And this isn't the only new growth avenue that the company is exploring. Monday, Home Depot announced that it was acquiring Chem-Dry for an undisclosed sum. Chem-Dry franchises carpet and upholstery cleaning businesses, with about 2,500 franchises in the U.S. alone. Now, I'm not a tremendous fan of Chem-Dry itself, but I won't deny that it could significantly expand Home Depot's service business -- another area that management is targeting for future growth.

In a nutshell, this is why I think the worries about Home Depot being tied to the housing/refinancing boom or facing saturation, or both, are a little silly. Simply put, good companies find new avenues for growth. Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) isn't just an operating systems company. Starbucks (Nasdaq: SBUX) isn't just a coffee shop. And Home Depot isn't just a hardware store on steroids.

For constructive Foolishness:

• Muscular Growth From MSC Industrial
• Hughes Supplies Respectable Results
• Cozying Up to Home Depot

Microsoft is another Inside Value recommendation. Lead analyst Philip Durell looks for undervalued, sturdy companies whose stock prices are set for plenty of improvement. Click here for a free trial.

Fool contributor Stephen Simpson has no financial interest in any stocks mentioned (that means he's neither long nor short the shares).