The Mooresville-based company’s main rival, Atlanta-based Home Depot, also beat analyst expectations in its most recent quarter.
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Lowe’s Cos Inc, the No. 2 US home improvement chain, reported a 5 per cent rise in quarterly sales, helped by a strong recovery in the USA housing market.
Sales of existing homes rose 4.7 percent in September, according to The National Association of Realtors, indicating that demand for housing remains steady.
Lowe’s reported an increase in both the number of transactions and their average value in the third quarter ended October 30. It projects total sales growth of 4.5 percent to 5 percent and comparable sales to rise 4 percent to 4.5 percent.
What happened with Lowe’s this quarter?As Home Depot did earlier in the week, Lowe’s posted substantial quarterly revenue and earnings gains as shoppers across the country boosted their spending on home improvements.
Lowe’s returned $1.01 billion of cash to shareholders through $750 million in stock buyback spending and $260 million in dividend payments. The average estimate of 14 analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of 78 cents per share.
Its net sales climbed 5 percent to $14.36 billion.
Last year, Lowe’s finished seventh on HFN’s list of the top 50 home furnishings retailers, logging $4.46 billion in home furnishings sales in 2014.
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It expects profit of $3.29 per share and same-store sales growth of 4.0-4.5 percent for the year.
