Housing recovery lifts sales at Lowe's

The rebounding housing market lifted Lowe's financial results in the first quarter, although not as much as Wall Street expected.

The company reported net earnings of $673 million for the quarter ended May 1, 2015, a 7.8% increase over the same period a year ago.Sales for the first quarter increased 5.4% to $14.1 billion. Same storesales for the quarter increased 5.2%. Same store sales for the U.S. home improvement business increased 5.3%.

The results from Lowe's were a contrast to rival Home Depot Inc., which beat almost all projections Tuesday and raised its outlook for the year.

“I am pleased that we executed well and delivered another strong quarter,” said Robert A. Niblock, Lowe’s chairman, president and CEO. “We generated comparable sales growth in all regions of the country and across all product categories, driving strong earnings per share growth."

For the full fiscal year, total sales are expected to increase 4.5% to 5.0%, with comparable-store sales expected to increase in the range of 4.0% to 4.5%.

Lowe's expects to open a total of 15 to 20 home improvement and hardware stores this year.

As of May 1, 2015, Lowe’s operated 1,843 home improvement and hardware stores in the United States, Canada and Mexico, representing 201.2 million sq. ft. of retail selling space.

Lowe's earnings followed its rival Home Depot's earnings report by about 24 hours.