UPDATE: Lowe's Beats Q4 Expectations, Shares Rise

Shares of Lowe's Companies Inc. LOW surged over 2.5% in pre-market trading after the company reported better-than-expected earnings for the fourth quarter. The Mooresville, North Carolina-based company posted quarterly earnings of $450 million, or $0.46 per share, compared to $306 million, or $0.29 per share, in the year-ago quarter. Its sales climbed to $12.54 billion from $11.66 billion. However, analysts were projecting earnings of $0.43 per share on sales of $12.3 billion. Lowe's total same-store sales gained 7.3% during the fourth quarter, while comparable sales for the US business rose 7.4%. During the quarter, Lowe's repurchased $1.0 billion of stock under its share repurchase program and paid $225 million in dividends. As of January 30, 2015, the company operated 1,840 home improvement and hardware stores in the US, Canada and Mexico. "We remain focused on improving our profitability even while investing in key capabilities to drive sales growth," Robert A. Niblock, Lowe's chairman, president and CEO said. "Our transformation is gaining momentum, and macroeconomic fundamentals are aligned for modestly stronger home improvement industry growth in 2015." For fiscal 2015, Lowe's projects same-store sales growth of 4% to 4.5% and total sales to rise 4.5% to 5%. It also projects diluted earnings of around $3.29 per share for the fiscal year. Lowe's shares surged 2.55% to $76.55 in pre-market trading.