Piper Jaffray Maintains Rating, PT In Q1 Preview Of LOW

Piper Jaffray is maintaining its Neutral rating and its $28 price target on Lowe's LOW in its preview of the company's 1Q. In the report, Piper Jaffray writes, “We are maintaining our Q1E EPS of $0.37 (vs. consensus of ~$0.37) but lowering our comp estimate from +0.5% to -1% based on what we believe to be a slow start to the spring selling season resulting from challenging weather in parts of the US. Our proprietary satellite data further supports our thesis and shows that the monthly traffic trends appear to have deteriorated from February to April. We also believe that persistent negative trends in housing, unemployment and one-time benefits associated with the first time homebuyer tax credit and cash for appliances will likely continue to be headwinds in Q2.” LOW closed yesterday at $25.94.