Although other companies may be struggling, Lowe’s reported earnings of $884 million for the first quarter, a 31.4% increase over the same period a year ago.
Diluted earnings per share increased 40% to $0.98 from $0.70 in the first quarter of 2015.
“We executed well in the quarter, growing both transaction and average ticket to achieve comparable sales growth that exceeded our expectations,” said Robert Niblock, Lowe’s chairman, president and CEO. “We continued to focus on providing better omni-channel customer experiences, and saw strength in indoor as well as outdoor categories.”
This shouldn’t come as a huge shock, as its rival, Home Depot, just reported an increase in earnings earlier this week.
Home Depot reported sales of $22.8 billion for the first quarter of fiscal 2016, a 9% increase from the first quarter of fiscal 2015.
Lowe’s, however, reported a sales increase of 7.8% to $15.2 billion from $14.1 billion in the first quarter of 2015, and comparable sales for the quarter increased 7.3%.
That being said, Lowe’s actually beat Home Depot in U.S. same-store sales for the first time in 10 years with an increase of 7.5%, beating out Home Depot’s increase of 7.4%, according to an article by Anne Steele for The Wall Street Journal.
“Our team’s project expertise and commitment to customer service allowed us to capitalize on strong home improvement demand during the quarter, and I would like to thank them for their efforts,” Niblock said.
