NEW YORK (AP) — Lowe’s Cos., the nation’s second-largest home improvement chain behind Home Depot, offered an upbeat annual outlook after reporting strong fiscal fourth-quarter results that showed a still sizzling housing market.
The report, released Wednesday, follows a robust quarterly report from Home Depot.
Home improvement stores have been busy during the pandemic as people working from home took on new projects. Many also moved into new homes with more space for a home office. A high inventory of aging homes has also helped to propel home owners to fix up their houses.
Sales of previously occupied homes rose in January as a surge in buyers with cash and others eager to avoid higher mortgage rates snapped up properties, leaving the number of available houses on the market at a record low.
Existing home sales rose 6.7% last month from December to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 6.5 million, the National Association of Realtors said Friday. That’s more than the roughly 6.08 million sales that economists had been expecting, according to FactSet.
Lowe’s, based in Mooresville, North Carolina, said that it earned $1.21 billion, or $1.78 per share, for the quarter ended Jan. 28. The results beat Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of 12 analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of $1.72 per share.
The home improvement retailer posted revenue of $21.34 billion in the period, also surpassing Street forecasts. Nine analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $20.82 billion.
Sales at its established stores rose 5.1%. Sales from “Pro” customers, which encompass contractors and specialty tradesmen, increased 23%.
Lowe’s now expects full-year earnings to be $13.10 to $13.60 per share, with revenue in the range of $97 billion to $99 billion.
Analysts are expecting earnings per share of $12.93 on sales of $97.26 billion for the current year, according to FactSet.
Shares rose more than 3%, or $7.66, to $222.25 in premarket trading.
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Elements of this story were generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on LOW at https://www.zacks.com/ap/LOW
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AP Business Writer Michelle Chapman contributed to this report.
