Shares of Lowe’s LOW companies,
rose 1.9% in premarket trading on Wednesday, after the home improvement retailer reported fiscal second-quarter profit that beat expectations but sales that surprisingly fell, citing a “shortened spring” and a decline demand in certain discretionary categories. Net income for the quarter to July 29 was $2.99 billion, or $4.67 per share, after revenue of $3.02 billion, or $4.25 per share, in the period from a year earlier, with the weighted average number of shares outstanding falling 7.5% to 638 million. That beat the FactSet consensus for earnings per share of $4.58. Sales fell 0.3% to $27.48 billion from $27.57 billion, while the FactSet consensus had forecast an increase to $28.12 billion. Overall same-store sales fell 0.3%, missing the FactSet consensus for a 2.1% increase, and US same-store sales edged up 0.2% to miss expectations for growth of 1.9%. Cost of sales increased 0.5% to $9.13 billion as gross margin contracted to 33.2% from 33.8%. For fiscal 2022, the company expects EPS to be at the upper end of its guidance range of $13.10 to $13.60, but expects total sales and Same-store sales are at the lower end of its forecast for sales of $97 billion to $99 billion and for same-stores. sales down 1% to up 1%. The company said it would help its frontline hourly workers during the period of high inflation by paying out $55 million in bonuses. The stock is up 10.4% in the three months to Tuesday, as rival Home Depot Inc. shares HD,
advanced 8.8% and the S&P 500 SPX,
gained 5.3%.
