Lowe's Cos. Posts 47% Jump In Quarterly Earnings

Lowe's Companies Inc. on Wednesday said fourth-quarter earnings were $450 million, or 46 cents a share, up 47% from $306 million, or 29 cents a share, in the year-earlier period. Sales at the home-improvement retailer rose to $12.5 billion from $11.7 billion in the same period last year. Analysts polled by FactSet had expected earnings of 43 cents a share, on sales of $12.3 billion. Total same-store sales during the quarter rose 7.3%. For fiscal 2015, the company expects same-store sales to rise 4% to 4.5%. Shares of Lowe's rose 2.8% to $76.70 in premarket trade.