Home Depot and Lowe’s: Will Lowe’s Catch Up to Home Depot in 2017?

Investors are closely watching Lowe’s performance as the company has closed the performance gap with Home Depot over the last several quarters. In 4Q, Lowe’s comparable store sales growth of 5.1% was just 70 basis points short of Home Depot’s 5.8% comparable store sales growth.

However, consensus estimates show that investors are still skeptical of Lowe’s ability to consistently catch up to Home Depot over the next year, as the comparable store sales gap is at 1.1% for the year.

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Additionally, investors have not yet fully bought into Lowe’s margin targets for 2017, as analyst estimates currently have Lowe’s falling slightly short of their margin guidance. This compares to analysts’ expectations for Home Depot to slightly outperform their margin expansion targets for 2017.