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Lowe's (LOW) Benefits From Pro Business, Digital Strength

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Lowe's Companies, Inc. (LOW - Free Report) has been benefiting from strength in its Pro businesses. Also, strong digital base has been aiding the company’s performance for a while now. Apart from this, LOW’s Total Home strategy bodes well as consumers remain engaged in home related activities.

Let’s Delve Deeper

Pro customers continue to be a significant driver for LOW's business. In the fiscal fourth quarter, U.S. pro sales jumped 10% year over year and 36% on a two-year basis. This marks the 11th straight quarter of a double-digit Pro sales increase in the Unites States.

Management is quite focused on enhancing the Pro offering. During the fiscal fourth quarter, management made strong additions to the Pro brand arsenal. This includes portfolio of drinks from Coca-Cola, partnership with Hubbell, Klein Tools and Carhartt Apparel.

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About its digital efforts, management has been making investments in the omnichannel to provide frictionless experience to online customers. Evidently, sales at Lowes.com increased 5% during the fourth quarter of fiscal 2022 and on top of that, 11.5% growth reported in the fourth quarter of 2021. This represents about 11% sales penetration. The company is focused on removing friction from the customers' online experience, which includes adding Apple Pay in the fiscal fourth quarter to improve conversion.

Lowe’s is also expanding the market-based delivery model by adding bulky products like grills, riding lawn mowers, stock cabinets and many more. This delivery model will enable the company to further consolidate its industry leadership position in appliances and help achieve profitable growth in the future.

Wrapping Up

Lowe’s remains prone to unfavorable foreign currency translations, owing to its exposure in the international markets. Also, the company has been facing headwinds from supply-chain costs. Such factors may weigh upon the company’s performance.

Nonetheless, the upsides mentioned above will likely help Lowe’s to battle such hurdles.

Shares of this Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) company have declined 5.1% in the past three months compared with the industry’s fall of 8.2%.

3 Solid Picks

Some top-ranked stocks are Inter Parfums (IPAR - Free Report) , The Kroger Co. (KR - Free Report) and Deckers Outdoor Corporation (DECK - Free Report) .

IPAR has an expected long-term earnings growth rate of 15% and a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 36.2%, on average. Inter Parfums currently sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Inter Parfums’ current financial year sales suggests growth of 10.8% from the year-ago reported numbers.

The Kroger Co. operates in the thin-margin grocery industry, currently carries a Zacks Rank of 2 (Buy). KR has a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 9.8%, on average.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Kroger’s current financial year sales and earnings suggests growth of 2.5% and 6.2%, respectively, from the prior-year reported numbers.

Deckers Outdoor Corporation is a leading designer, producer and brand manager of innovative, niche footwear, currently carries a Zacks Rank of 2. DECK has a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 31%, on average.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Deckers’ current financial year sales and earnings suggests growth of 12.2% and 13.6%, respectively, from the corresponding year-ago reported figures.

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