Lowe's, Praying For Hurricane Dean To Head North Ahead of Earnings (LOW, HD)

Lowe’s Companies (NYSE:LOW) reports earnings on Monday and First Call estimates put earnings at $0.61 EPS on revenues of $14.1 Billion.  Estimates for the following quarter are $0.47 EPS on revenues of $12.1 Billion.

Maybe this is a better retailer than its larger compatitor Home Depot (NYSE:HD), but its a super hardware store chain in a whole sector that is just very hard to get excited about.  Maybe that means that the whole goal just has to be ‘less bad’ instead of good.  The stock is trading only 5% above its year lows and the 52-week trading range for the stock is $25.98 to $35.74.  Analysts are mixed to positive on the stock, but it looks like their price targets are still above the year high.  Anything is possible, but it’s hard to imagine that happening any time soon.  Options are hard to use since today is option expiration and the next expiration is more than a month away.  So including the longer time-value, it looks like options traders are prepped for a move of up to $1.25 or $1.30 in either direction.

Home Depot (NYSE:HD) shares are in their own funk over the recent push-out of its unit sale and delayed repurchase tender terms.  With shares down this much and that industry feeling serious pain, you know that management team has to be praying that Hurricane Dean will turn and hook north in a hurry.

Jon Ogg can be reached at [email protected]; he is the publisher of the 24/7 Wall St. Special Situation Investing Newsletter and does not own securities in the companies he covers.