MW Lowe's bests Home Depot on a key sales metric, and with an earnings beat

By Tomi Kilgore

Home improvement retailer's comparable sales growth misses expectations but outpaced that of its key rival, while profit beat expectations

Lowe's stock bounces after third-quarter sales of stores open more than a year rise more than expected, but also outpace those of rival Home Depot.

Shares of Lowe's Companies bounced back nicely in early Wednesday trading, after the home improvement retailer beat fiscal third-quarter profit expectations, something its key rival couldn't do.

And while Lowe's $(LOW)$ growth in comparable sales, or sales of stores open at least 13 months, missed Wall Street projections, they outpaced that of Home Depot $(HD)$ for a second straight quarter.

"The company delivered another quarter of positive comp sales, and we're pleased to start November with positive comps as well, despite headwinds related to hurricane activity in the prior year," said Chief Executive Marvin Ellison. Basically, the lack of storms this year, when compared with last year, reduced sales growth, something Home Depot also cited for its sales miss.

The stock rallied 4.8% in premarket trading, after falling 6.7% amid a five-day losing streak to close Tuesday at a four-month low.

For the quarter to Oct. 31, net earnings fell 4.7% from the same period a year ago to $1.62 billion, while adjusted earnings per share, which excludes nonrecurring items, grew 5.9% to $3.06, which was above the average analyst EPS estimate compiled by FactSet $2.97. That marked the 20th straight quarter that Lowe's beat on the bottom line, while Home Depot has missed profit expectations the past three quarters.

Comparable sales rose 0.4% to miss the FactSet consensus for a 1% rise. The growth was driven by an 11.4% jump in online sales growth, and strength in home services and its Pro segment.

In contrast, chief rival Home Depot (HD) had reported on Tuesday a quarterly profit that was below expectations and lowered its full-year profit outlook, while comparable sales grew just 0.2% to also miss forecasts.

Read: Lowe's tops Home Depot with an $8.8 billion buyout deal and an earning beat.

Overall net sales were up 3.2% to $20.81 billion, just shy of the FactSet consensus of $20.82 billion.

Looking ahead, the company raised its full-year outlook for net sales to $86 billion from a previous range of $84.5 billion to $85.5 billion.

But the company also trimmed its outlook for comparable sales growth to "flat" from previous guidance of flat to up 1%, and said it now targets adjusted EPS of $12.25 versus previous expectations of $12.20 to $12.45.

Lowe's stock has lost 11% in 2025 through Tuesday, while Home Depot shares have shed 13.5% and the S&P 500 index SPX has advanced 12.5%.

-Tomi Kilgore

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November 19, 2025 06:25 ET (11:25 GMT)

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