Lowe’s said it expects full-year diluted earnings to be $4.11 per share. Earnings, adjusted for non-recurring gains, were 87 cents per share, which topped Wall Street expectations by 2 cents, according to a poll by Zacks Investment Research.
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Net income rose to $884-million, or 98 cents per share, in the first quarter ended April 29, from $673-million, or 70 cents per share, a year earlier. Comparable sales for the quarter increased 7.3%.
Analyst Coverage: Barclays has been a brokerage house following shares of Lowe’s Companies, Inc. We continued to focus on providing better omni-channel customer experiences, and saw strength in indoor as well as outdoor categories.
In the latest quarter, Lowe’s said “project expertise and commitment to customer service allowed us to capitalize on strong home-improvement demand during the quarter”. HD’s management estimated a $250 million sales benefit from the unseasonably warm weather in the first quarter, or about 1.1% of sales.
Comparable sales for stores open at least a year grew 7.3 per cent, including double-digit growth in Canada, where it operates 42 stores under the Lowe’s brand. Analyst expected twelve month price target of $21.13.
Lowe’s Business Outlook excludes the impact of the pending RONA acquisition.
In its financial report for the first quarter, Rona said last week it lost $16.5 million in the quarter, including $7.6 million in restructuring and acquisition costs.
Lowe’s Companies, Inc. (NYSE:LOW) traded down -1.21% during trading on Friday, hitting $76.66. LOW has a 1-year high of $78.13 and a 1-year low of $62.62. The stock’s price moved below its 200 day moving average of $25.71. (LOW) sold shares in the company in a transaction completed on Wednesday April 06, 2016. Zelman upgraded the shares of LOW in a report on November 19 to “Buy” rating. This was also higher than $14.87 billion predicted by the analysts.
In terms of performance, the stock has had a mixed year so far with the performance for the year at 7.01%. Benedict has a success rate of 66.7% and is ranked #707 out of 3833 analysts, while Nagel has a success rate of 56.1% and is ranked #177.
Other Hedge Funds, Including, Archford Capital Strategies sold out all of its stake in LOW during the most recent quarter. Now the stock has been rated as “Buy” from 17 Analysts.
Lowe’s Companies, Inc. (NYSE:LOW) stock is now trading at about $75.01 and lots of rating firms seem to have a target price set on the stock.
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“Home improvement retail is very much a bright spot in an otherwise weakish consumer environment”.
