Home Improvement Retail

Lowe's Companies (NYSE: LOW) is scheduled to report fourth-quarter 2011 results tomorrow, February 27, before the markets open. Last week, rival Home Depot (NYSE: HD) posted better-than-expected results, despite the weak housing market, due in part to better same-store sales and a mild winter...

On the heels of last week's quarterly results from Walmart (NYSE: WMT), Home Depot (NYSE: HD), Macy's (NYSE: M) and many other retailers, this week will bring more earnings reports from shopping mall and strip mall standbys. Auto parts and accessories purveyor AutoZone (NYSE: AZO) is expected to...

New Home Sales measures the number of new single-family homes that were sold during the prior month; this report is somewhat strongly correlated to Existing Home Sales. The Survey states that 321 thousand new single-family homes were sold in January. This is lower/higher than the 315 thousand...

According to Piper Jaffray, Lumber Liquidators (NYSE: LL) price target is raised to $26 and is upgraded to Overweight. Piper Jaffray said that it is upgrading shares of Lumber Liquidators to Overweight and increasing its price target to $26. “We see meaningful upside to the EPS guidance and...

ISI Group raises its target price on Hold-rated Lumber Liquidators (NYSE: LL) to $19 from $17 as it believes current valuation does not fully account for comps store growth. ISI Group says, "Unlike many of the other discretionary housing names in the space, LL either discounts the 7.5% store...

Existing Home Sales measures the change of existing residential buildings that were sold during the previous month. This report helps to gauge the strength of the U.S. housing market and is a strong indicator of overall economic strength. The Survey states that 4.57 million existing residential...

The MBA Mortgage Applications Survey tracks new home mortgage applications and resembles a current indicator for the U.S. housing market. The Survey decreased 4.5% versus the prior week. This is essentially bearish for the U.S. housing market. MBA Mortgage Applications measures the change in the...

Jefferies maintains its Hold rating on Lowe's (NYSE: LOW) and raises its price target by $3 to $25 as it expects housing data to strengthen. Jefferies says, "While we still prefer Home Depot to Lowe's as it outperforms on the sales and EBIT line, both of these names are benefiting from the...

According to a research report published earlier today, Bank of America has raised Home Depot Inc.'s (NYSE: HD) PT from $46 to $50, and Lowes' (NYSE: LOW) from $26 to $29. In the report, Bank of America said, “We are lowering both 12/13E EPS from $0.20 to $0.14. Along with 4Q earnings last week...

The MBA Mortgage Applications Survey tracks new home mortgage applications and resembles a current indicator for the U.S. housing market. The Survey increased 7.5% versus the prior week. This is essentially bullish for the U.S. housing market. MBA Mortgage Applications measures the change in the...

The MBA Mortgage Applications Survey tracks new home mortgage applications and resembles a current indicator for the U.S. housing market. The Survey decreased 2.9% versus the prior week. This is essentially bearish for the U.S. housing market. MBA Mortgage Applications measures the change in the...

Lowe's (NYSE: LOW) is a well known company that has assisted millions of Americans in pursuing personal projects and opportunities. However, it has maintained a fairly narrow business model, until now that is. Zep Inc. (NYSE: ZEP) today announced that 50 Zep Commercial® products will soon be...

The MBA Mortgage Applications Survey tracks new home mortgage applications and resembles a current indicator for the U.S. housing market. The Survey decreased 5% versus the prior week. This is essentially bearish for the U.S. housing market. MBA Mortgage Applications measures the change in the...

While it may feel like ages ago, it was just a few years ago that home ownership was considered one of the pillars of the American dream. Then along came the financial crisis, which was in large part fueled by loose lending standards to home buyers, and home ownership became more nightmare than...

In a research report published today by Piper Jaffray, satellite data has shown Lowe's Companies (NYSE: LOW) parking lot traffic running near +0.2% for the QTD. In the report, Piper Jaffray commented, “Importantly, November and December present the toughest y/y compares for the quarter due to...