Lowe's (LOW) Stock Climbs on Analyst Upgrade Today

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Shares of Lowe's Companies Inca are climbing 0.95% to $56.34 in early market trading Thursday, after the home improvement retailer was upgraded to "buy" from "neutral" at Goldman Sachs this morning. Analysts at the investment firm raised its price target to $63 from $58, reflecting its higher earnings estimates. Goldman Sachs analysts raised its 2015 earnings forecast rangeato $5.20-$5.85 per share froma$5.15-$5.80 per share, based on expected strongerasales through an extended housing recovery. Must Read: Warren Buffett's 25 Favorite Stocks STOCKS TO BUY: TheStreet Quant Ratings has identified a handful of stocks that can potentially TRIPLE in the next 12 months. Learn more. The firm added that the upgradeareflects greater comfort investing inahousing-related retail companies today,aas well as its assessment of a long runamargin expansion opportunity. Separately, TheStreet Ratings team rates LOWE'S COMPANIES INC as a Buy with a ratings score of A+. TheStreet Ratings Team has this to say about their recommendation: "We rate LOWE'S COMPANIES INC (LOW) a BUY. This is based on the convergence of positive investment measures, which should help this stock outperform the majority of stocks that we rate. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its revenue growth, increase in stock price during the past year, impressive record of earnings per share growth, increase in net income and good cash flow from operations. We feel these strengths outweigh the fact that the company has had generally high debt management risk by most measures that we evaluated." Highlights from the analysis by TheStreet Ratings Team goes as follows: LOW's revenue growth has slightly outpaced the industry average of 1.0%. Since the same quarter one year prior, revenues slightly increased by 5.6%. Growth in the company's revenue appears to have helped boost the earnings per share. The stock has risen over the past year as investors have generally rewarded the company for its earnings growth and other positive factors like the ones we have cited in this report. Looking ahead, unless broad bear market conditions prevail, we still see more upside potential for this stock, despite the fact that it has already risen over the past year. LOWE'S COMPANIES INC has improved earnings per share by 18.2% in the most recent quarter compared to the same quarter a year ago. The company has demonstrated a pattern of positive earnings per share growth over the past two years. We feel that this trend should continue. During the past fiscal year, LOWE'S COMPANIES INC increased its bottom line by earning $2.13 versus $1.68 in the prior year. This year, the market expects an improvement in earnings ($2.63 versus $2.13). The net income growth from the same quarter one year ago has exceeded that of the S&P 500 and the Specialty Retail industry average. The net income increased by 10.3% when compared to the same quarter one year prior, going from $942.00 million to $1,039.00 million. Net operating cash flow has increased to $1,929.00 million or 41.42% when compared to the same quarter last year. The firm also exceeded the industry average cash flow growth rate of 9.54%. You can view the full analysis from the report here: LOW Ratings Report STOCKS TO BUY: TheStreet Quant Ratings has identified a handful of stocks that can potentially TRIPLE in the next 12 months. Learn more.

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