Lowe's Misses Q1 Expectations, Shares Drop

Shares of Lowe's Companies, Inc. LOW tumbled more than 6 percent in pre-market trading after the company reported downbeat results for its first quarter. The Mooresville, North Carolina-based company posted a quarterly profit of $673 million, or $0.70 per share, versus a year-ago profit of $624 million, or $0.61 per share. Its net sales surged 5.4 percent to $14.13 billion. However, analysts were estimating a profit of $0.74 per share on revenue of $14.28 billion. The average estimate among 29 Estimize users was for earnings of $0.75 per share and revenue of $14.29 billion. Lowe's total same-store sales climbed 5.2 percent in the quarter, while comparable sales for the U.S. home improvement business surged 5.3 percent. During the quarter, Lowe's repurchased $1.0 billion of stock under its share repurchase program. As of May 1, 2015, the company operated 1,843 home improvement and hardware stores in the United States, Canada and Mexico. "I am pleased that we executed well and delivered another strong quarter," commented Robert A. Niblock, Lowe's chairman, president and CEO. "We generated comparable sales growth in all regions of the country and across all product categories, driving strong earnings per share growth. I would like to thank our employees for their dedication to serving customers." The company expects full-year earnings of $3.29 per share on sales growth of 4.5 percent to 5 percent. Lowe's shares slipped 6.86 percent to $66.90 in pre-market trading.