JPMorgan Investment Management, I recently announced the acquisition of new stake in Lowe’s Companies Inc. (NYSE:LOW). The institutional investor has increased its shareholding in the Consumer Cyclical company by 22.07% to 17.63 million shares with purchase of 3.19 million shares. This fresh investment now brings its stake to 2.96% valued currently at $3.66 billion. In addition, Wells Fargo Clearing Services LLC raised its holdings by 19957.0 to 8.83 million shares. And Massachusetts Financial Services has lifted its position by 3.64% or 0.29 million shares – to 8.36 million shares.
With over 2.77 million Lowe’s Companies Inc. (LOW) shares trading Friday and a closing price of $206.27 on the day, the dollar volume was approximately $571.05 million. The shares have shown a negative half year performance of -4.12% and its price on 05/19/23 lost nearly -1.38%. Currently, there are 602.00M common shares owned by the public and among those 594.99M shares have been available to trade.
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An analysis of what Wall Street brokers have to say about the expected price targets for this stock gives us this picture: 36 analysts who have offered their price forecasts for LOW have a consensus price objective of $227.43. The analysts have set the share’s price value over the next 12 months at a high of $290.00 and a low of $151.00. The average price target is 9.34% above its recent price level and a downside to the estimated low will see the stock lose -36.6% over that period. But an upside of 28.87% will see the stock hit the forecast high price target while median target price for the stock is $226.50.
Insiders at the company have transacted a total of 58 times over the past 12 months, according to data filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). 24 of these insider trades were purchases, accounting for 452,958 shares. Insider sales of the common stock occurred on 34 occasions, with total insider shares sold totaling 354,206 shares.
The top 3 mutual fund holders in Lowe’s Companies Inc. are Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF, Vanguard 500 Index Fund, and Pershing Square Holdings Ltd. Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF owns 18.73 million shares of the company’s stock, all valued at over $3.89 billion. The company bought an additional 0.12 million shares recently to bring their total holdings to about 3.14% of the shares outstanding. Vanguard 500 Index Fund sold -0.3 million shares to see its total holdings shrink to 14.12 million shares valued at over $2.93 billion and representing 2.37% of the shares outstanding. Pershing Square Holdings Ltd. now owns shares totaling to 1.52% of the shares outstanding.
Shares of Lowe’s Companies Inc. (NYSE: LOW) opened at $208.34, down -$0.82 from a prior closing price of $209.16. The company’s stock has a 5-day price change of 1.48% and -3.05% over the past three months. LOW shares are trading 3.53% year to date (YTD), with the 12-month market performance up to 12.21% higher. It has a 12-month low price of $170.12 and touched a high of $223.31 over the same period. LOW has an average intraday trading volume of 2.99 million shares. The stock is trading above its simple moving averages at the SMA20, SMA50, and SMA200, as the current price level is off by 0.41%, 2.47%, and 2.37% respectively.
Institutional ownership of Lowe’s Companies Inc. (NYSE: LOW) shares accounts for 78.40% of the company’s 602.00M shares outstanding. Mutual fund holders own 36.38%, while other institutional holders and individual stakeholders account for 39.60% and 1.36% respectively.
It has a market capitalization of $124.73B and a beta (3y monthly) value of 1.06. The stock’s trailing 12-month PE ratio is 20.62, while the earnings-per-share (ttm) stands at $10.01. The company has a PEG of 2.76 and a Quick Ratio of 0.10. Price movements for the stock have been influenced by the stock’s volatility, which stands at 2.61% over the week and 2.11% over the month.
Analysts forecast that Lowe’s Companies Inc. (LOW) will achieve an EPS of $3.45 for the current quarter, $4.76 for the next quarter and $14.71 for 2025. The lowest estimate earnings-per-share for the quarter is $3.3 while analysts give the company a high EPS estimate of $3.72. Comparatively, EPS for the current quarter was $3.51 a year ago. Earnings per share for the fiscal year are expected to decrease by -15.50%, and 8.09% over the next financial year. EPS should shrink at an annualized rate of 7.48% over the next five years, compared to 19.80% over the past 5-year period.
If you are looking to buy this stock, then you may note that the average analyst recommendation by 36 brokerage firm advisors rate Lowe’s Companies Inc. (LOW) as a “Moderate Buy” at a consensus score of 2.30. Specifically, 16 Wall Street analysts polled rate the stock as a buy, while 15 of the 36 advise that investors “hold,” and 2 rated it as a “Sell.”
