Deutsche Bank Maintains Buy, $31 Target on Lowe's

Deutsche Bank remains Buy-rated with a price target of $31 on Lowe's LOW following the company's quarterly results. Deutsche Bank says, "Total sales were +13% at $11, 629b, beating FactSet consensus of +8% to $11, 345b. The impact of the extra week was as expected. Comps were +3.4%, still trailing HD's 5.7% increase, but the 2.3 percentage point gap is the smallest since 3Q10. Consensus comp estimates were 0%-1%, but expectations were higher after HD's report last week. A low tax rate helped by $0.01, but a big beat nonetheless. Share buybacks in the quarter were minimal, but LOW bought back nearly $3b for the year." LOW closed at $27.16 a share on Friday.