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Lowe's (LOW) Stock Moves -1.28%: What You Should Know

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Lowe's (LOW - Free Report) closed at $89.17 in the latest trading session, marking a -1.28% move from the prior day. This change was narrower than the S&P 500's 1.58% loss on the day. Elsewhere, the Dow lost 1.99%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 1.63%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the home improvement retailer had gained 2.22% over the past month. This has outpaced the Retail-Wholesale sector's loss of 5.53% and the S&P 500's loss of 6.62% in that time.

Wall Street will be looking for positivity from LOW as it approaches its next earnings report date. This is expected to be February 27, 2019. The company is expected to report EPS of $0.80, up 8.11% from the prior-year quarter. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $15.73 billion, up 1.54% from the prior-year quarter.

Looking at the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $5.11 per share and revenue of $71.40 billion. These totals would mark changes of +16.4% and +4.05%, respectively, from last year.

Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for LOW. These revisions typically reflect the latest short-term business trends, which can change frequently. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the company's business outlook.

Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. To benefit from this, we have developed the Zacks Rank, a proprietary model which takes these estimate changes into account and provides an actionable rating system.

The Zacks Rank system ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell). It has a remarkable, outside-audited track record of success, with #1 stocks delivering an average annual return of +25% since 1988. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 1.01% lower within the past month. LOW is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

Digging into valuation, LOW currently has a Forward P/E ratio of 17.66. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 10.94, which means LOW is trading at a premium to the group.

It is also worth noting that LOW currently has a PEG ratio of 1.25. The PEG ratio is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but this metric also takes the company's expected earnings growth rate into account. Building Products - Retail stocks are, on average, holding a PEG ratio of 1.12 based on yesterday's closing prices.

The Building Products - Retail industry is part of the Retail-Wholesale sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 182, which puts it in the bottom 29% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our individual 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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