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Lowe's (LOW) Gains But Lags Market: What You Should Know

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Lowe's (LOW - Free Report) closed at $95.30 in the latest trading session, marking a +1.01% move from the prior day. The stock lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 1.45%. Elsewhere, the Dow gained 1.22%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq added 0.78%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the home improvement retailer had lost 4.84% over the past month. This has lagged the Retail-Wholesale sector's loss of 3.83% and was narrower than the S&P 500's loss of 7.42% in that time.

Investors will be hoping for strength from LOW as it approaches its next earnings release. On that day, LOW is projected to report earnings of $1.28 per share, which would represent year-over-year growth of 4.92%. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $17.95 billion, up 1.17% from the prior-year quarter.

Looking at the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $5.90 per share and revenue of $72.22 billion. These totals would mark changes of +3.15% and +0.1%, respectively, from last year.

Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for LOW. These revisions typically reflect the latest short-term business trends, which can change frequently. As a result, we can interpret positive estimate revisions as a good sign for the company's business outlook.

Based on our research, we believe these estimate revisions are directly related to near-team stock moves. To benefit from this, we have developed the Zacks Rank, a proprietary model which takes these estimate changes into account and provides an actionable rating system.

The Zacks Rank system, which ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has an impressive outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks generating an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection has moved 10.39% lower. LOW currently has a Zacks Rank of #4 (Sell).

Digging into valuation, LOW currently has a Forward P/E ratio of 16. This valuation marks a premium compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 9.06.

Investors should also note that LOW has a PEG ratio of 1.09 right now. The PEG ratio is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but this metric also takes the company's expected earnings growth rate into account. LOW's industry had an average PEG ratio of 1.09 as of yesterday's close.

The Building Products - Retail industry is part of the Retail-Wholesale sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 96, which puts 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.

To follow LOW in the coming trading sessions, be sure to utilize Zacks.com.


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