Shares of Lowe’s Companies LOW, -2.22% rose 0.7% in premarket trading Wednesday, after the home improvement retailer reported fiscal fourth-quarter profit and sales that beat expectations, and said it planned to buy back $9 billion worth of its stock this year. Net income for the quarter Jan. 29 rose to $978 million, or $1.32 a share, from $509 million, or 66 cents a share, in the year-ago period. Excluding nonrecurring items, such as charges related to a strategic review of operations, adjusted earnings per share came to $1.33, above the FactSet consensus of $1.21. Sales increased 26.7% to $20.31 billion, beating the FactSet consensus of $19.42 billion, as same-store sales growth of 28.1% beat expectations of a 22.0% rise. “Strong execution enabled us to meet broad-based demand driven by the continued consumer focus on the home, with growth over 16% in all merchandising departments, over 19% across all U.S. regions and 121% on Lowes.com,” said Chief Executive Marvin Ellison. The company said it repurchased $3.4 billion worth of its shares in the fourth quarter and $5.0 billion in shares for the year, and plans to buy back $9 billion worth of stock in 2021. The stock has rallied 8.8% over the past three months through Tuesday, while the S&P 500 SPX, +0.13% has gained 6.8%.
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