Lowe's, Target And TJX Q1 Profit Tops View

(RTTNews) - Home improvement retailer Lowe's Companies Inc. (LOW) reported a profit for the first-quarter that climbed 73.1 percent from last year. Discount retailer Target Corp.'s (TGT) first-quarter profit surged from the previous year. Off-price retailer TJX Companies Inc. (TJX) reported a profit for the first-quarter compared to a loss in the prior year.

Lowe's, Target and TJX's quarterly earnings per share topped analysts' expectations.

Lowe's said it is currently tracking ahead of the Robust Market scenario provided at its December investor update, which assumed fiscal 2021 sales of $86 billion.

According to Lowe's, better-than-expected results and a supportive macroeconomic backdrop build its confidence in its ability to deliver strong results for the fiscal year.

Lowe's also said it continues to plan for $9 billion in share repurchases and $2 billion in capital expenditures in fiscal 2021.

Target projects mid-to-high single digit growth in comparable sales for the second quarter, and single-digit comparable sales growth in the last two quarters of the year.

Looking ahead, TJX Companies expects total sales, pretax margin, and earnings per share for the second quarter of fiscal 2022 to be negatively impacted from the temporary store closings.

For the start of the second quarter of fiscal 2022, overall open-only comp store sales trends remain similar to the first quarter. Due to the continued uncertainty of the current environment, the company is not providing financial guidance at this time, TJX Companies said.

Lowe's first-quarter net earnings climbed 73.1 percent to $2.32 billion from $1.34 billion, with earnings per share improving to $3.21 from $1.76 last year.

Excluding charges in the prior-year period related to the strategic review of certain operations, first quarter earnings per share were $3.21 compared to $1.77 in the previous year. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to report earnings of $2.62 per share for the first-quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

Lowe's revenue for the first-quarter rose 24.1 percent to $24.42 billion from $19.68 billion last year. Analysts expected revenues of $23.86 billion for the quarter.

Comparable sales increased 25.9 percent. Comparable sales for the U.S. home improvement business increased 24.4 percent for the first quarter.

Meanwhile, Target Corp. reported that its first-quarter net earnings surged to $2.10 billion or $4.17 per share, from $284 million or $0.56 per share in the year-ago quarter.

Excluding a $0.53 gain on the sale of Dermstore, adjusted earnings for the quarter were $3.69 per share, compared to $0.59 per share in the prior-year quarter. Analysts expected the company to report earnings of $2.25 per share for the first-quarter.

The company gained more than $1 billion in market share in the first quarter, on top of a $1 billion share gain in first quarter 2020.

Total revenue for the quarter grew 23.4 percent to $24.20 billion from $19.62 billion in the same quarter last year, driven by total sales growth of 23.3 percent and a 30.4 percent increase in other revenue. Analysts expected revenues of $21.81 billion for the quarter. Total comparable sales grew 22.9 percent in the first quarter, reflecting comparable store sales growth of 18.0 percent and comparable digital sales growth of 50 percent.

Same-day services -Order Pickup, Drive Up and Shipt- grew more than 90 percent, led by growth in Drive Up of 123 percent.

TJX Companies reported that its net income was $533.93 million or $0.44 per share for the first quarter, compared to a net loss of $887.49 million or $0.74 per share in the prior-year quarter. On average, 25 analysts expected the company to report earnings of $0.31 per share for the quarter.

The results for the latest quarter were negatively impacted by the temporary closure of some of its stores due to the COVID-19 global pandemic.

The company estimates that temporary store closures for approximately 14% of the first quarter, primarily stores in Europe and Canada, negatively impacted the latest-quarter sales by approximately $1.1 billion to $1.2 billion and earnings per share by approximately $0.21 to $0.24.

Net sales for the quarter more than doubled to $10.09 billion from $4.41 billion in the same quarter last year. Analysts expected revenues of $8.62 billion for the first-quarter.

Overall open-only comp store sales increased 16 percent compared to the first quarter of Fiscal 2020.

In Wednesday regular trading, LOW was trading at $188.92 down $3.83 or 1.99 percent. TJX was trading at $68.12, down $3.02 or 4.25 percent. But, TGT was trading at $213.75 up $7.32 or 3.55 percent.