Lowe's (LOW) Outpaces Stock Market Gains: What You Should Know
Lowe's (LOW) closed at $237.78 in the latest trading session, marking a +1.49% move from the prior day. This change outpaced the S&P 500's 0.42% gain on the day.
Prior to today's trading, shares of the home improvement retailer had gained 14.85% over the past month. This has outpaced the Retail-Wholesale sector's gain of 6.5% and the S&P 500's gain of 7.03% in that time.
Investors will be hoping for strength from LOW as it approaches its next earnings release. In that report, analysts expect LOW to post earnings of $2.27 per share. This would mark year-over-year growth of 14.65%. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $21.55 billion, down 3.41% from the prior-year quarter.
Looking at the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $11.33 per share and revenue of $93.05 billion. These totals would mark changes of +27.88% and +3.85%, respectively, from last year.
Any recent changes to analyst estimates for LOW should also be noted by investors. These recent revisions tend to reflect the evolving nature of short-term business trends. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the company's business outlook.
Based on our research, we believe these estimate revisions are directly related to near-team stock moves. Investors can capitalize on this by using the Zacks Rank. This model considers these estimate changes and provides a simple, actionable rating system.
The Zacks Rank system, which ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has an impressive outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks generating an average annual return of +25% since 1988. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.59% higher within the past month. LOW is holding a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy) right now.
In terms of valuation, LOW is currently trading at a Forward P/E ratio of 20.68. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 17.58, so we one might conclude that LOW is trading at a premium comparatively.
We can also see that LOW currently has a PEG ratio of 1.46. This popular metric is similar to the widely-known P/E ratio, with the difference being that the PEG ratio also takes into account the company's expected earnings growth rate. LOW's industry had an average PEG ratio of 2.04 as of yesterday's close.
The Building Products - Retail industry is part of the Retail-Wholesale sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 71, which puts it in the top 28% of all 250+ industries.
The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.
Be sure to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and many more, on Zacks.com.
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