Lowe's trimmed its full-year sales and profit targets, signaling that price-conscious homeowners are delaying major renovations and compounding back-half headwinds.
The home-improvement retailer lowered its 2026 outlook across nearly every major financial metric to reflect first-half operating results and softer ongoing demand trends, particularly in the do-it-yourself category. Lowe's now expects 2026 sales of $92 billion, anchoring the bottom of its former target range of $92 billion to $94 billion, and below analyst forecasts. The company also projects flat comparable-store sales compared with previous forecasts of flat to 2% growth.
The revised outlook underscores a broader cooling across the home improvement sector, where steep interest rates and sticky inflation have pushed budget-squeezed households to defer big-ticket renovations. While rival Home Depot has managed to fare better, beating quarterly expectations and maintaining guidance for the year, executives noted that consumers are hesitant to take on debt to tackle bigger projects.
Earnings per share targets were also downgraded, and are now expected at $11.75, down from a range of $11.75 to $12.25 a share, with adjusted earnings per share of $12.25, compared with a range of $12.25 to $12.75. Analysts expect adjusted earnings per share of $12.43.
The downgraded targets follow a second quarter where sales grew 8.4% to $25.96 billion, but came in shy of analyst projections of a rise to $26.13 billion, as weakness in the DIY category continued to limit overall growth.
Comparable sales for the quarter increased 0.2%, driven by the Lowe's Pro and home services sales, as well as a nearly 16% increase in online sales, partially offset by persistent DIY macro pressures.
Net income of $2.4 billion, or $4.27 a share, was unchanged from the same quarter a year ago.
Adjusted earnings were $4.40 a share. According to FactSet, analysts were expecting $4.22 a share.
"Sustained growth in Pro, Online and Home Services led to our fifth consecutive quarter of positive comp sales, despite pressure in discretionary DIY spending," Chairman and Chief Executive Marvin Ellison said.