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The big home improvement retailers are set to battle it out this week when they report earnings on Tuesday and Wednesday. Home Depot Inc. (NYSE: HD) may be having a better year than Lowe’s Companies Inc. (NYSE: LOW), but that’s not to say that Lowe’s can’t do some catching up.

Here is a 24/7 Wall St. quick preview of the earnings that are set to be reported later this week, including some color and what a few analysts are saying about each company.

Home Depot is scheduled to release its fiscal second-quarter financial results before the markets open on Tuesday. The consensus estimates call for $3.08 in earnings per share (EPS) and $31.03 billion in revenue. The same period of last year had $3.05 in EPS and $30.46 billion in revenue.

Excluding Monday’s move, Home Depot had outperformed the broad markets, with its stock up about 18.5% year to date. However, in the past 52 weeks, the stock was up only 5%.

A few analysts weighed in on Home Depot ahead of the report:

• Wells Fargo has an Outperform rating and a $230 price target.
• Stifel’s Buy rating comes with a $230 target price.
• Loop Capital has a Hold rating and a $195 target.
• Gabelli has a Hold rating.
• Goldman Sachs rates it at Buy with a $235 price target.

Shares of Home Depot traded up about 1% Monday to $206.34, in a 52-week range of $158.09 to $219.30. The consensus price target is $211.03.

Lowe’s is expected to share its quarterly results on Wednesday. The analysts’ consensus forecast is EPS of $2.00 on revenue of $20.96 billion. In the same period of last year, it posted $2.07 in EPS and $20.89 billion in revenue.

Excluding Monday’s move, Lowe’s had underperformed the broad markets, with its stock up nearly 2% year to date. In the past 52 weeks, the stock was actually down 3%.

Here’s what analysts had to say about Lowe’s ahead of the report:

• Goldman Sachs has a Buy rating with a $119 price target.
• Barclays has an Equal Weight rating and a $105 price target.
• CFRA’s Hold rating comes with a $105 target price.
• Merrill Lynch has a Buy rating and a $105 price target.

Lowe’s was trading up nearly 2% at $95.60 a share, in a 52-week range of $84.75 to $118.23. The consensus price target is $113.97.

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