Check Out Lowe’s Companies Inc. (LOW)’s Trade Data Rather Than the Analysts’ Views

Lowe’s Companies Inc. (NYSE: LOW) stock fell -1.27% on Thursday to $201.04 against a previous-day closing price of $203.63. With 3.03 million shares changed hands, the volume of the stock remained lighter than its average volume of 3.07 million shares. During the session, the Home Improvement Retail company that operates in wider Consumer Cyclical sector, reached to the highest price of $204.01 whereas the lowest price it dropped to was $200.90. The 52-week range on LOW shows that it touched its highest point at $223.31 and its lowest point at $170.12 during that stretch. It currently has a 1-year price target of $227.53. With its current market cap of 121.57 billion, LOW has annualized dividend of $4.20 while the current yield stands at 2.09%. Beta for the stock currently stands at 1.06.

Price Performance and Earnings:

Stock performance is one of the indicators that investors use to determine whether they will profit from a stock. The price performance of LOW was down-trending over the past week, with a drop of -3.88%, but this was up by 0.12% over a month. Three-month performance dropped to -0.25% while six-month performance fell -6.26%. The stock gained 8.89% in the past year, while it has gained 0.90% so far this year. A look at the trailing 12-month EPS for LOW yields 10.01 with Next year EPS estimates of 14.70. For the next quarter, that number is 4.76. This implies an EPS growth rate of -15.50% for this year and 8.09% for next year. EPS is expected to grow by 7.48% annually over the next five years; however, over the past five years, the company experienced an annual growth rate of 19.80%.

Float and Shares Shorts:

At present, 602.00 million LOW shares are outstanding with a float of 594.99 million shares on hand for trading. On May 14, 2023, short shares totaled 9.77 million, which was 1.65% higher than short shares on Apr 13, 2023. In addition to Mr. Marvin R. Ellison as the firm’s Pres, CEO & Chairman, Mr. Brandon J. Sink serves as its Exec. VP & CFO.

Institutional Ownership:

Through their ownership of 77.48% of LOW’s outstanding shares, institutional investors have majority control over the company. Other institutions hold 39.51% of LOW, in contrast to 36.08% held by mutual funds. Shares owned by individuals account for 1.36%. As the largest shareholder in LOW with 8.53% of the stake, The Vanguard Group, Inc. holds 50,859,806 shares worth 50,859,806. A second-largest stockholder of LOW, BlackRock Fund Advisors, holds 27,505,685 shares, controlling over 4.61% of the firm’s shares. SSgA Funds Management, Inc. is the third largest shareholder in LOW, holding 24,849,466 shares or 4.17% stake. With a 3.15% stake in LOW, the Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF is the largest stakeholder. A total of 18,789,895 shares are owned by the mutual fund manager. The Vanguard 500 Index Fund, which owns about 2.38% of LOW stock, is the second-largest Mutual Fund holder. It holds 14,193,750 shares valued at 2.95 billion. Pershing Square Holdings Ltd. holds 1.52% of the stake in LOW, owning 9,056,888 shares worth 1.88 billion.

An Overview of Recent Financials:

Understanding a company as a customer does not mean you will understand it as an investor. The wise investor uses quantitative research to analyze metrics such as revenue, net income, and earnings. In its fiscal quarter reported on May 04, 2023, LOW reported revenue of $23.66B and operating income of $3.30B. The EBITDA in the recently reported quarter was $3.81B and diluted EPS was $3.51.

Analysts Ratings:

Reading analyst opinions is an effective way to decide where to invest, and there are several opinions available for LOW since 0 analysts follow the stock currently. In the same way, a target price assigned to a stock can also reveal much about its potential. With LOW analysts setting a high price target of $290.00 and a low target of $154.00, the average target price over the next 12 months is $227.40. Based on these targets, LOW could surge 44.25% to reach the target high and fall by -23.4% to reach the target low. Reaching the average price target will result in a growth of 13.11% from current levels.

EPS: Estimates vs Actual

It is also common to use earnings estimates to evaluate a firm’s growth potential and to determine trading strategy.

Summary of Insider Activity:

Insiders traded LOW stock several times over the past three months with 18 Buys and 12 Sells. In these transactions, 330,105 shares were bought while 163,748 shares were sold. The number of buy transactions has increased to 24 while that of sell transactions has risen to 34 over the past year. The total number of shares bought during that period was 452,958 while 354,206 shares were sold.