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Empresas y finanzas

Like Home Depot, Lowe's gains from warm winter


    (Reuters) - Lowe's Cos , the world's second-largest home improvement chain, reported higher-than-expected quarterly sales as a warm winter prompted many homeowners take up renovation projects that they normally take up only in the spring.

    The results echoed those from larger rival Home Depot Inc , which also reported stellar sales due to strong demand for everything from paint to concrete in the unseasonably warm quarter.

    Shares of Lowe's were up 2.7 percent at $27.90 in trading before the market opened on Monday.

    The company's sales rose 11 percent to $11.63 billion in the fourth quarter ended on February 3, well ahead of the analysts' average estimate of $11.34 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Sales at stores open at least a year rose 3.4 percent.

    Net income rose to $322 million, or 26 cents a share, from $285 million, or 21 cents a share, a year earlier.

    Excluding items, the company earned 24 cents a share, in line with the analysts' average estimate.

    For the current fiscal year, Lowe's forecast earnings of $1.75 to $1.85 a share.

    (Reporting by Dhanya Skariachan; Additional reporting by Ranjita Ganesan; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty and Lisa Von Ahn)