Lowe's Companies Reduces Earnings Outlook

Lowe's (NYSE: LOW) investors had modest expectations heading into this week's earnings report, given that the retailer has consistently trailed Home Depot (NYSE: HD) on key growth and profitability metrics.

That performance gap continued in the second quarter, and contributed to a reduced full-year earnings forecast. More on that slipping outlook in a moment. First, here's how the headline results stacked up against the prior-year period:

Metric

Source: Fool.com