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Lowe's (LOW) Laps the Stock Market: Here's Why

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The most recent trading session ended with Lowe's (LOW - Free Report) standing at $202.75, reflecting a +1% shift from the previouse trading day's closing. This move outpaced the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.52%. Meanwhile, the Dow gained 0.4%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, added 0.58%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the home improvement retailer had lost 13.44% over the past month. This has lagged the Retail-Wholesale sector's loss of 5.98% and the S&P 500's loss of 2.61% in that time.

The investment community will be closely monitoring the performance of Lowe's in its forthcoming earnings report. The company is scheduled to release its earnings on November 21, 2023. The company's earnings per share (EPS) are projected to be $3.13, reflecting a 4.28% decrease from the same quarter last year. In the meantime, our current consensus estimate forecasts the revenue to be $21.16 billion, indicating a 9.86% decline compared to the corresponding quarter of the prior year.

For the entire fiscal year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $13.44 per share and a revenue of $87.87 billion, representing changes of -3.24% and -9.47%, respectively, from the prior year.

Any recent changes to analyst estimates for Lowe's should also be noted by investors. These recent revisions tend to reflect the evolving nature of short-term business trends. As a result, upbeat changes in estimates indicate analysts' favorable outlook on the company's business health and profitability.

Our research demonstrates that these adjustments in estimates directly associate with imminent stock price performance. To exploit this, we've formed the Zacks Rank, a quantitative model that includes these estimate changes and presents a viable rating system.

The Zacks Rank system, ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), possesses a remarkable history of outdoing, externally audited, with #1 stocks returning an average annual gain of +25% since 1988. Over the last 30 days, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.15% lower. Lowe's currently has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

Valuation is also important, so investors should note that Lowe's has a Forward P/E ratio of 14.94 right now. This expresses a premium compared to the average Forward P/E of 11.38 of its industry.

Also, we should mention that LOW has a PEG ratio of 1.31. The PEG ratio bears resemblance to the frequently used P/E ratio, but this parameter also includes the company's expected earnings growth trajectory. By the end of yesterday's trading, the Building Products - Retail industry had an average PEG ratio of 1.89.

The Building Products - Retail industry is part of the Retail-Wholesale sector. With its current Zacks Industry Rank of 78, this industry ranks in the top 31% of all industries, numbering over 250.

The Zacks Industry Rank assesses the strength of our separate industry groups by calculating the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks contained within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

You can find more information on all of these metrics, and much more, on Zacks.com.


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