Lowe's announced that its Q4 2010 earnings were $285 million, or 21 cents per share, an increase of 39% compared to $205 million, or 14 cents per share a year earlier. Net sales increased 3.1% to $10.5 billion and same-store sales increased by 1.1%. However, the company was cautious with its Q1 2011 outlook citing that it expected flat same-store sales growth.
LOW announced that its Q3 2010 earnings were $404 million, or 29 cents a share, a 17% increase from $344 million or 23 cents per share a year earlier. The company was able to cut costs and increase margins by hiring more part-time, seasonal workers and by using employees to clean and do electrical/plumbing repairs in stores. Net revneue increased 1.9% for the period. Lowe's trimmed their FY forecast to between $1.37 and $1.40 a share, down from between $1.38 and $1.45 per share.
Lowe's announced that its Q2 2010 net earnings were $832 million, or 58 cents per share, a 10% increase from $759 million, or 51 cents per share, in the prior year quarter. Net sales increased 3.7% and comparable store sales increased by 1.6% for the period. The company attributes the growth to an increase in the number of air conditioners and grills bought at the beginning of the summer.
Analysts at Goldman Sachs removed LOW from its Conviction Buy list.
Goldman Sachs cut it's earnings estimates for LOW through 2012 on expectations of lower sales Goldman left its "neutral" rating.
BMO Capital upgraded LOW to marketperform from underperform. Analyst Wayne Hood said the stocks have a "more favorable balance of upside to downside risk." BMO also upgraded LOW's competitor HD to marketperform as well.
JMS downgraded LOW to neutral from buy. JMS believes the minor recovery in housing was due to the government stimulus, which has ended. JMS set a target price of $22 on LOW. JMS also downgraded HD's competitor HD to neutral as well.
Lowe's reported that its Q1 2010 earnings was $489 million, or 34 cents per share, in increase of 2.7% from earnings of $476 million, or 32 cents per share a year earlier. Net sales and comparable store sales increased 4.7% and 2.4% respectively. Although Q1 numbers exceeded analysts' expectations, the company's guidance for Q2 of earnings of 57 to 59 cents, was below analysts' expecations of 62 cents per share.
Lowe's reported that its Q4 2009 earnings were $205 million, or 14 cents per share, up 27% from $162 million, or 11 cents per share. Same-store sales decreased by 1.6% for the quarter, but was the smallest drop in 3.5 years. In addition, the number of customers were up 3.7%.
Lowe's announced that it planned to open three stores in Western Canada in the Calgary region. This will add to the company's international presence as it already has 15 stores open in Ontario.
Lowe's announced that its Q3 2009 earnings fell 29.5% from $488 million or 33 cents/share in 2008 to $344 million or 23 cents/share. Revenue fell 3% and same store sales fell 7.5% due to the sluggish housing market and the economic downturn.
Lowe's reported that its Q2 2009 earnings fell 19.1% from $938 million for Q2 2008 to $759 million in 2009. The large drop in profits were due to decrease in net sales and comparable store sales. In addition, Lowe's main competitor Home Depot only reported a loss of 8.1% for the quarter.
Home Depot, the industry leader and Lowe's main competitor, raised its 2009 profit forecast as a result of individual homeowners spending more and stronger overall sales.
For Q4 FY2008, LOW announced that it would pay out $0.085/share in cash dividend to common shareholders on record as of April 17, 2009. The dividend will be paid out on May 1, 2009.
For Q4 2008, ended Jan 31, 2009, BKS reported earnings of $81.2 million, or $1.46 per share. This is a 29% decrease compared to earnings from the previous-year quarter, during which net income was $115 million. EPS for the full year 2008 was $2.03, beating analyst estimates.
LOW reported a 60% drop in earnings during Q4 2008 compared to the prior-year quarter and offered a bleak outlook for 2009, attributing its poor performance to the pressures from the economic downturn and the weak home market.
In Q3 2008 (ended Oct. 31, 2008), LOW's earnings decreased by 24% to $488 million, when compared to the prior-year quarter. Sales were up by 1.4% to $11.73 billion, and same-store sales fell by 5.9%. LOW performed better than expected as well as better than its major competitor, Home Depot.
After reporting better than expected figures for the fiscal 2007 fourth quarter (although Lowe's beat analyst expectations, it still experienced a 7.6% decrease in same store sales during the quarter and a 5.1% decrease in same store sales for the full year), Lowe's announced that the company was pulling back on their prior expansion plans for FY 2008. Rather than opening 135 to 145 stores during the year as the company stated in September, Lowe's plans on opening about 120 stores during the year; the decrease is management's response to visibly tough conditions in the housing market and domestic economy.
Lowe's reported a slight (3.2%) increase in sales in the fiscal third quarter of 2007 compared to the same quarter last year. However, gross profit declined 2.6% and net profit declined 10.2%, largely due to product price markdowns due to poor sales. Also Lowe's saw a continuing downward trend in comparable store sales, which decreased 4% during the quarter. Lowe's management stated that they expect poor results to continue in light of difficult economic conditions.
Lowe's announced a quarterly profit of nine percent, which exceeded expectations of the market. The net revenue increased to $14.17 billion from $13.39 billion last year. This led to an increase in the stock price in the early trading. However, the company reduced its earnings outlook for the year as the sales at the stores open for at least a year decreased by 2.6 percent.
Lowe's reports an 11% drop in profits in the fourth quarter of 2006.
Lowe's announces plans to open 5 stores in Mexico in 2009.
Larry Stone is promoted to his current position as President of Lowe's.
