Home Depot Incorporation (NYSE:HD) is in the middle of legal war – facing 44 lawsuits

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Home Depot Incorporation (NYSE:HD), on November 25, 2014 announced that it is facing almost 44 lawsuits in the region of Canada and the United States. Further elaborating upon the nature of the suits, the company said that all these cases were of civil nature and were related to the mass data breach that the company was allegedly involved into in the first part of the year.

It is important to mention here that Home Depot is under investigation by a number of State and Federal departments. The company is worried that all these investigations and claims against it can adversely affect its business. The attention of management is also likely to divert from business operations to lawsuits handling. Moreover, these lawsuits can confer lots of additional costs on the company.

Home Depot Incorporation (NYSE:HD), during a meeting with the press, said that the company is still under investigation. It further said that the management is assessing the impacts of all these investigations upon company’s financial figures and reputation. It is not impossible for the company to identify other sources of breach in the coming weeks.

In its efforts to secure the business from future threats and attacks, Home Depot Incorporation (NYSE:HD) has launched a program that fully encrypts the credit card information of its customers. This program will take care of all the sales transactions that will happen in the Home Depot terminals in the region of U.S. The company is also planning to launch this program in its Canadian terminal by first half of next year. The company is also making arrangements to have PIN and EMV technology installed at its shops so that each transaction made by the credit or debit card can be authenticated.

Home Depot Incorporation (NYSE:HD) earlier in November revealed that around 53 million emails of its customers have been stolen through a cyber attack. The account information of another 56 million customers is under risk. The company posted its financial results last week; it has incurred pretax expenses of around $28 million in the most recent of its quarters.

Home Depot Incorporation (NYSE:HD) had taken an insurance policy worth $100 million for expenses related to data breach. This policy was taken before the company experienced a cyber attack at its Target Corporation last year. After the attack, the company started taking care of customers’ information, especially during the holiday season. Management of the company briefed the investors that the insurance policy covers some of the fraud expenses and legal costs but it does not cover all the related expenses.

Coming to the stock prices of Home Depot Incorporation (NYSE:HD), the company, on the last trading day of November 25, 2014, started its stocks at a price of $98.64 and closed at a price of $97.01, after hitting the highest price of $98.87. The company has a total market capitalization of $132.21 billion with a P/E (price to earnings) ratio of 22.06.

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