Home improvement retailer Lowe's gets stock upgrade

Posted Dec 15th 2006 1:43PM by Brian White
Filed under: Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades, Products and Services, Consumer Experience, Home Depot (HD), Marketing and Advertising, Lowe's Cos (LOW)

Shares of home improvement retailer Lowe's Companies, Inc.(NYSE:LOW) were changed to outperform from peer perform by ratings house Bear Stearns today, who stated that the home-improvement retailer will benefit from stabilization in the housing market anticipated during the second half of 2007. Wow -- that's quite a bit far off, yes?

As Bear Stearns put it, "We believe that we are nearing the end of the downward earnings-revision cycle as the housing adjustment plays out ... while we still see risk to earnings in the near term ... we believe the majority of this process is behind us."

Although the analyst does not anticipate another housing boom, shares of larger rival Home Depot (NYSE:HD) are also rated at outperform at this time by Bear Stearns. While the analyst stated in his research note that there could be another 18 months of housing declines, "the rebound in Lowe's is likely to be a long way off or short-lived (and Home Depot will likely pull back as well)."

Tags: Home Depot, HomeDepot, LOW, Lowe's HD, Lowe'sHd

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

6-23-2010 @ 3:59PM

john-kenedy2010 said...

I like this.

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john

12-18-2006 @ 4:24PM

Jerry Bluhm said...

Bear Stearns' saying Lowes is a good buy here and that in the second half of 2007 will be good for home imporvement is a bit of a stretch given that the drop in housing in really just now starting. We are in only the second quarter of the slow down in housing. The housing slow down has yet to begin to affect the economy, but soon we will begin to see the effect. By the second half of 2007 we will see the severe effect of the slow down in housing in my opinion. As the entire economy begins to suffer home improvement and all retailers will see their sales slow. People who are trying to say the housing slow down effect has almost ended are similar to those who said we will never have a tech slow down and if we did it would be so short lived. I would be careful about beleiving upgrades given right now especially on retail stores. Upgrades right before Christmas are those I pay little attention to, given this is the end of the year when porfolios of the investment firms with to end the year on a positive note for their companies. I am more inclined to pay closer attention to upgrades given in the new year. Investors BEWARE!

12-18-2006 @ 4:23PM

Jerry Bluhm said...

I thought most analyst looks out 6 months to give guidance on a possible imporvement in stock price of companies. Why an upgrade when a stock may not increase for 18 months? What is up here?