{
  "id": 1770480,
  "title": "Lowe’s Earnings Preview: Can Pro Growth and Digital Momentum Offset Weak DIY Demand?",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/17/lowes-earnings-preview-can-pro-growth-and-digital-momentum-offset",
  "topic": "finance",
  "section": "Finance & Markets",
  "published": "2026-08-17T09:18:53.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Yahoo Finance",
    "slug": "yahoo-finance",
    "url": "https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/lowe-earnings-preview-pro-growth-091853853.html"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Lowe's prepares to release its fiscal second-quarter earnings, providing an opportunity to assess if its growth and digital momentum can offset the challenges in the DIY segment. The company's earnings preview indicates that consumer confidence, household budgets, and housing affordability will be crucial factors in traders' analysis. With its earnings scheduled for August 19, just one day after Home Depot's report, Lowe's could offer key insights into the stabilization or deepening of weakness in the home improvement market.\n\nIn the previous quarter, Lowe's reported solid sales growth, with overall sales increasing to $23.1 billion from $20.9 billion the prior year, while comparable sales rose by 0.6%. The company's spring execution was strong, with a notable 15.5% increase in online sales and continued robustness in appliances, home services, and Pro sales. Adjusted diluted earnings per share (EPS) increased by 3.8% to $3.03, despite pre-tax expenses of $96 million due to acquisitions of Foundation Building Materials and Artisan Design Group.\n\nManagement highlighted that Lowe's achieved its fourth consecutive quarter of positive comparable sales, despite the adverse housing conditions. Approximately 60% to 65% of Lowe's revenue comes from DIY customers, making the company particularly sensitive to changes in consumer confidence and household budgets. As a result, traders will be looking for evidence that consumers are continuing to shift towards maintenance and essential projects, while higher-income households remain willing to spend on discretionary upgrades.\n\nThe broader housing market is not providing much encouragement. Existing-home sales declined in July, with high prices and elevated mortgage rates discouraging potential buyers. The median existing-home price remains above $430,000, and limited inventory has restricted transactions. Lowe's faces a K-shaped economy, where higher-income consumers continue to spend, while lower-income households pull back. This divergence could result in resilient aggregate results for Lowe's, even if specific segments of its customer base face weakness.\n\nAn increased mortgage rate above 6.5% significantly impacts consumers by increasing monthly payments and discouraging homeowners with low-rate mortgages from selling, contributing to the low-turnover environment. Lowe's management has emphasized that lower interest rates could give consumers more flexibility for home improvement projects. Consequently, traders should monitor interest-rate expectations, as a sustained decline in Treasury yields and mortgage rates could serve as a catalyst for Lowe's before the housing data itself shows significant improvement.\n\nLowe's is responding to the challenging DIY environment by strengthening its professional business. The Pro customer segment, comprising contractors and tradespeople, offers a more consistent demand pattern beyond discretionary consumption. The first quarter already showed that Pro sales were contributing to growth, alongside appliances and home services. Lowe's strategic acquisitions of Foundation Building Materials and Artisan Design Group are aimed at expanding its professional offering, which traders should closely monitor for potential integration and incremental market share gains.\n\nWith the home improvement sector estimated to be worth roughly $1 trillion and highly fragmented, Lowe's does not require a strong industry recovery to generate growth. If the company outperforms smaller competitors, enhances its Pro proposition, and broadens its service offerings, it can potentially achieve company-specific growth even as the overall market remains muted. Another area to watch is Lowe's Total Home strategy, which focuses on increasing online sales and strengthening home services. These areas could help Lowe's capture more of the customer relationship, reducing reliance on store traffic alone.",
  "summary": null,
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}