NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / December 7, 2017 / Shares of Home Depot may have hit red territory on Wednesday but the company announced a $15 billion share buyback plan as well as announced strong numbers for its annual outlook. Shares of Lowe's Companies saw a drop and closed down nearly 5% which could have been the result of rival Home Depot making its announcement.

RDI Initiates Coverage on:

The Home Depot, Inc.
https://rdinvesting.com/news/?ticker=HD

Lowe's Companies, Inc.
https://rdinvesting.com/news/?ticker=LOW

The Home Depot, Inc. shares closed down 1.11% on Wednesday. Despite the drop the company announced that it is offering a $15 billion share buyback plan and that it would invest in improving its stores so that it hits $120 billion in annual sales in the next three years. The home improvement store chain is expecting to buy back $12.5 billion in the next three years. Chief Executive Officer Craig Menear commented, "The retail landscape is changing at unprecedented rates and we plan to invest for the future to address the evolving needs of our customers." The company also announced that it is expecting post annual per-share profits of $7.36 and a growth of 6.5% for comparable-store sales growth.

Access RDI's The Home Depot, Inc. Research Report at:
https://rdinvesting.com/news/?ticker=HD

Lowe's Companies, Inc. shares closed down 4.53% yesterday on a little over 12 million shares traded. There was no remarkable news from the company other than Lowe's announcing that it has named Sylvain Prud'homme President, International, but shares may have dropped as traders showed concerns over rival Home Depot announcing a share buy-back program. Home Depot has approved a $15 billion buy-back program and also reiterated its sales and earnings target for the year. Last month Raymond James Financial upgraded Lowes shares from "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating. It was last month that the company reported its third-quarter earnings. Same-store sales (sales from stores open at least a year) saw a growth of 5.7% which topped estimates. Wall Street had been calling for same-store sales to grow 4.6%. EPS of $1.05 was also higher than the $1.02 expected and revenue of $16.77 billion was higher than the $16.59 billion expectation.

Access RDI's Lowe's Companies, Inc. Research Report at:
https://rdinvesting.com/news/?ticker=LOW

Our Actionable Research on The Home Depot, Inc. (NYSE: HD) and Lowe's Companies, Inc. (NYSE: LOW) can be downloaded free of charge at Research Driven Investing.

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