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Lowe's Tops First-Quarter Views, Maintains Full-Year Outlook

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Lowe's Tops First-Quarter Views, Maintains Full-Year Outlook

Lowe's (LOW) reported fiscal first-quarter results above market estimates on Wednesday, while the home improvement retailer affirmed its full-year outlook.

Its adjusted earnings of $3.03 a share for the three months through May 1 rose 3.8% from the year before, topping the FactSet-polled consensus of $2.97. The result excluded pre-tax expenses of $96 million linked to the retailer's acquisitions of Foundation Building Materials and Artisan Design Group last year.

Sales climbed to $23.08 billion from $20.93 billion, ahead of the Street's view for $22.98 billion. Comparable sales edged up 0.6%, buoyed by online sales growth of about 16% and demand for appliances and home services. However, the metric trailed the market's expectation for an increase of 0.7%.

"Strong spring execution and continued momentum in pro, appliances, online, and home services supported a solid start to the year as we delivered our fourth consecutive quarter of positive (comparable) sales," Chief Executive Marvin Ellison said in a statement. "In spite of a challenging housing macro, we remain focused on advancing our total home strategy to provide the best experience for our customer."

For fiscal 2026, Lowe's continues to project adjusted EPS of $12.25 to $12.75 and sales between $92 billion and $94 billion. Comparable sales are still pegged at flat to up 2%.

The Street is looking for non-GAAP EPS of $12.58 on $93.25 billion in full-year sales, with expected same-store sales growth of 1.3%.

Shares of the company were down 3.7% in Wednesday trade, and have lost about 13% so far this year.

Truist Securities has a buy rating on Lowe's stock.

"Given stable demand and the near cycle lows for housing investment, we continue to believe the bias to an inflection is to the upside, with timing uncertainty as the primary risk," the brokerage said in a client note.

On Tuesday, rival Home Depot reiterated its fiscal 2026 guidance following better-than-expected first-quarter results.

Earlier in the week, Oppenheimer expected Home Depot and Lowe's to lower their full-year guidance.

Price: $210.69, Change: $-7.68, Percent Change: -3.52%

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