Retail

Why Lowe's Is Expected to Grow Earnings Faster Than Home Depot

Chris Lange

Published: February 22, 2016 1:50 pm

Last Updated: January 13, 2020 12:52 pm

An earnings battle of retail titans is about to take place as both Home Depot Inc. (NYSE: HD) and Lowe’s Companies Inc. (NYSE: LOW) are set to share quarterly results this week. Home Depot will report first, on Tuesday morning, followed by Lowe’s early Wednesday. Both are posting their fiscal fourth-quarter financial results.

Home Depot’s consensus estimates that call for $1.10 in earnings per share (EPS) on $20.39 billion in revenue. In the same period of the previous year, it posted EPS of $1.00 and revenue of $19.16 billion.

The spring gardening and home fix-up season mirrors for home improvement stores the December holiday season for most other retailers. To underline the importance of the spring season, Home Depot said earlier in February that it has begun hiring what eventually will be 6,000 seasonal employees at its 182 Canada stores to get the company through the spring selling season. The company announced recently that it plans to hire 80,000 associates for its U.S. stores.

Home Depot operates nearly 2,000 stores in the United States, so on average the company plans to hire about 40 permanent part-time and seasonal employees per store. But that’s an average, and some states and stores are not slated to gain any new employees, according to a map at the company’s website. The number of U.S. seasonal employees the company plans to hire is equal to its hiring last year.

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