Patio furniture maker Lowe’s Companies (LOW) Wednesday reported fourth-quarter adjusted earnings of 80 cents per share, in line with the street projection. On a reported basis, the company swung to a loss of $1.03 per share from a profit of 67 cents per share last year, hurt by certain goodwill impairment charges related to its Canadian operations.
Revenue, meanwhile, edged up less than 1% to $15.6 billion, narrowly missing analysts’ estimate of $15.7 billion. Comparable sales for the US home improvement business rose 2.4%. Overall comparable sales improved by 1.7%.
LOW shares fell slightly following the results. The stock has gained 9.6% in the trailing 52 weeks and 14% since the beginning of this year.
CEO Marvin Ellison said, “We anticipate continued weakness in the Canadian housing market in the near-term, but remain confident in our market position in Canada and the long-term potential of that business.”
For fiscal 2019, the Mooresville, North Carolina-based firm expects total sales to increase by about 2%. Diluted EPS is projected in the range of $6.00 to $6.10 and comparable sales of about +3%.
Even as the company is focusing on modernizing its way of sales, Lowe’s has also been busy streamlining the business. With plans to exit its Mexico retails ops and shutter its Orchard Supply Hardware business, Lowe’s seems to be moving its resources to focus on the core business.
Yesterday, shares of rival Home Depot (HD) fell over 2% after reporting lower-than-expected fourth quarter results and offering lackluster guidance, hurt by the industry-wide weakness.