Lowe’s Erases Early Gains Despite Forecast Cut
Lowe’s Companies (LOW:US) shares trade around 1.6% lower after the home improvement retail giant lowered its full-year forecast for its comparable sales.
It seems that investors were not really impressed with Lowe’s earnings report. The company reported an adjusted EPS of $3.67 on revenue of $22.35 billion. Comparable sales tumbled 4.3%, worse than the expected 3.3% decline.
"We are pleased with the performance of our business despite record lumber deflation and unfavorable spring weather. Although we delivered positive comparable sales in Pro and online for the first quarter, we are updating our full-year outlook to reflect softer-than-expected consumer demand for discretionary purchases," said Marvin R. Ellison, Lowe's chairman, president and CEO.
"We remain optimistic about the medium-to-long term outlook for home improvement and our ability to continue to grow market share through our Total Home strategy.”
Overall, sales fell 5.5% year-over-year. Analysts were looking for earnings of $3.43 per share on revenue of $21.65 billion.
Lowe’s said it now expects comparable sales to fall between 2% to 4% for the full year, worse than the previous expectations for a 0% - 2% decline.
The company sees adjusted EPS at $13.40 on revenue of $88 billion. It was previously expecting a profit of $13.80 per share on revenue of $89 billion. Analysts were looking for adjusted EPS of $13.66 on sales of $88.5 billion.
Lowe’s shares mostly saw selling activity from Congress members in recent weeks and months. Representatives Josh Gottheimer, Ro Khanna, John Boozman, and Kevin Hern were all selling LOW shares.
Most notably, Rep. Khanna reported a $50,000 - $100,000 sale of LOW shares on April 10 when the stock closed at $199.78.
The stock closed at $206.65 on Tuesday.
