Lowe's (LOW) closed at $93.15 in the latest trading session, marking a -0.71% move from the prior day. This move was narrower than the S&P 500's daily loss of 0.79%. Meanwhile, the Dow lost 0.85%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, lost 1.11%.
Prior to today's trading, shares of the home improvement retailer had gained 2.13% over the past month. This has lagged the Retail-Wholesale sector's gain of 16.5% and the S&P 500's gain of 13.44% in that time.
Investors will be hoping for strength from LOW as it approaches its next earnings release, which is expected to be February 27, 2019. In that report, analysts expect LOW to post earnings of $0.80 per share. This would mark year-over-year growth of 8.11%. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $15.73 billion, up 1.55% from the prior-year quarter.
For the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $5.11 per share and revenue of $71.40 billion, which would represent changes of +16.4% and +4.05%, respectively, from the prior year.
Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for LOW. These recent revisions tend to reflect the evolving nature of short-term business trends. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the company's business and profitability.
Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. We developed the Zacks Rank to capitalize on this phenomenon. Our system takes these estimate changes into account and delivers a clear, actionable rating model.
The Zacks Rank system ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell). It has a remarkable, outside-audited track record of success, with #1 stocks delivering an average annual return of +25% since 1988. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.04% higher within the past month. LOW is currently a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).
Looking at its valuation, LOW is holding a Forward P/E ratio of 18.34. This valuation marks a premium compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 11.39.
Meanwhile, LOW's PEG ratio is currently 1.3. This popular metric is similar to the widely-known P/E ratio, with the difference being that the PEG ratio also takes into account the company's expected earnings growth rate. The Building Products - Retail industry currently had an average PEG ratio of 1.19 as of yesterday's close.
The Building Products - Retail industry is part of the Retail-Wholesale sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 96, putting it in the top 38% of all 250+ industries.
The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.
Make sure to utilize Zacks. Com to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and more, in the coming trading sessions.
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