Lowe's earnings plunge while Home Depot's spike

Lowe's Companies Inc. reported net earnings of $225 million for the quarter ended Oct. 28, 2011, a 44.3 percent decline from the same period a year ago. Diluted earnings per share decreased 37.9 percent to $0.18 from $0.29 in the third quarter of 2010. For the nine months ended Oct. 28, 2011, net earnings decreased 12.1 percent from the same period a year ago to $1.52 billion while diluted earnings per share decreased 3.3 percent to $1.17.
Sales for the quarter increased 2.3 percent to $11.9 billion, up from $11.6 billion in the third quarter of 2010. For the nine months ended Oct. 28, 2011, sales were $38.6 billion, an increase of 0.6 percent from the same period a year ago. Comparable store sales for the third quarter increased 0.7 percent and for the first nine months of 2011 decreased 1.0 percent.

The Home Depot’s third quarter net earnings totaled $934 million, or $0.60 per diluted share, compared with net earnings of $834 million, or $0.51 per diluted share, in the same period of fiscal 2010. For the third quarter of fiscal 2011, diluted earnings per share increased 17.6 percent from the prior year.
Sales for the third quarter totaled $17.3 billion, a 4.4 percent increase from the third quarter of fiscal 2010. Comparable store sales for the third quarter of fiscal 2011 were positive 4.2 percent, and comp sales for U.S. stores were positive 3.8 percent.

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