Lowe's Quarterly Earnings, Sales Below Wall Street's Forecasts

Lowe's Cos. on Wednesday posted quarterly revenue and adjusted earnings that fell short of Wall Street's targets. The home-improvement retailer said second-quarter net earnings came in at $1.42 billion, or $1.68 a share, compared with $1.17 billion, or $1.31 a share, a year ago. Adjusted earnings were $1.57 a share for the most recent period, missing the FactSet consensus estimate of $1.62 a share. Sales at Lowe's rose to $19.49 billion from $18.26 billion in the year-earlier quarter, but that was below the $19.55 billion forecast from analysts. Lowe's shares were down 6% in premarket trade following the results.