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Lowe's shares rose 2.5 percent to $76.50
premarket as the company also forecast full-year sales above
estimates.
"Macroeconomic fundamentals are aligned for modestly stronger
home improvement industry growth in 2015," Chief Executive
Robert Niblock said on Wednesday.
Increased spending on home renovations also helped larger rival
Home Depot <HD.N> post better-than-expected sales and profit on
Tuesday.
Lowe's forecast full-year earnings of about $3.29 a share,
edging past the average analyst estimate by one cent.
The company said it expects same-store sales to grow 4-4.5
percent in the year ending January 2016.
Total sales are expected to rise between 4.5 percent and 5
percent. The forecast translates to sales of $58.75-$59.04
billion - above the average analyst estimate of $58.52 billion,
according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Lowe's same-store sales increased 7.4 percent in the fourth
quarter, higher than the 5.1 percent estimated by analysts on
average, according to research firm Consensus Metrix.
Net income rose to $450 million, or 46 cents per share, in the
fourth quarter ended Jan. 30, from $306 million, or 29 cents per
share, a year earlier.
Net sales rose to $12.54 billion from $11.66 billion.
Analysts on average expected a profit of 43 cents per share on
sales of $12.31 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
In the 52 weeks to Tuesday's close, Lowe's stock gained 58
percent, outperforming Home Depot's 50 percent increase.
(Reporting by Nandita Bose in Chicago and Sruthi Ramakrishnan in
Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)
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