Profit will be as much as $1.83 a share in the year ending Feb. 1, down from a previous projection of a maximum of $1.85 a share, the Mooresville, North Carolina-based company said today in a statement. That trailed the average estimate of $1.87 by analysts in a Bloomberg survey.
Sales by stores open at least a year increased 2.6 percent, compared to analysts’ projection of 4.2 percent, after demand for outdoors items slowed toward the end of the quarter. Lowe’s, which trails larger Home Depot Inc. (HD) in growth, remains cautious about housing and the economy, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Robert Niblock said in the statement.
“Lowe’s is still in the earlier stages of executing its turnaround,” Christopher Horvers, an analyst at JPMorgan Chase & Co. in New York, said today in a note. He rates Lowe’s as neutral, equivalent to a hold rating, and said its results signal “sales trends decelerating, jobs softening and the summer being a seasonally weak period to own retailers.”
Lowe’s sank 4.1 percent to $27.30 at 7:39 a.m. in New York. The shares had advanced 12 percent this year before today.
Home Depot, based in Atlanta, last week reported same-store sales increased 5.8 percent.
Lowe’s net income rose 14 percent to $527 million in the quarter ended May 4 from $461 million a year earlier. Excluding some items, per-share earnings advanced to 44 cents, compared with the average estimate of 42 cents.
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