Lowe's Companies (LOW) Q2 2026 (USD): EPS 4.40 (exp. 4.23), Revenue 26bln (exp. 26.15bln)

• Adj. EPS +1.6% Y/Y and included a 0.11 benefit from IEEPA tariff refunds, SSS:
• SSS: 0.2 (exp. 0.5%), driven by strength in Pro and Home Services and online sales +15.7% Y/Y, partly offset by continued pressure in discretionary DIY spending. COMMENTARY:
• CEO says execution remains strong despite a dynamic near-term environment, with the company continuing to invest behind its Total Home strategy. GUIDANCE:
• FY EPS view 12.25 (exp. 12.43)
• FY Rev. view 92bln (exp. 92.95bln)
• FY26 comparable sales seen flat Y/Y

Home improvement prints of this shape have a familiar anatomy: a headline EPS beat that is cleaner than it looks once the tariff refund benefit is stripped out, leaving adjusted EPS roughly in line with or slightly short of the ex-benefit consensus, and a comparable sales miss underneath. In past episodes where the quality of a beat is questioned, the trade has tended to hinge on the split between Pro and DIY, and here the composition follows the pattern seen through this cycle, with Pro, services and online carrying the top line while big-ticket discretionary DIY stays soft, a divergence that has historically signalled cautious consumer spending on deferrable projects rather than housing-linked weakness outright. The guidance cut, with FY EPS and revenue both set below prevailing consensus and comps guided flat, is the kind of reset that has typically mattered more for the stock than the quarter itself, particularly when it follows a beat and reframes the second half. The read-across channel is well established: this name and its larger direct competitor trade as a pair on housing turnover, rates sensitivity and repair-and-remodel demand, so the peer's print and management commentary become the immediate follow-on, alongside any detail on ticket versus traffic and on how much of the margin line is being supported by one-off items. The tariff refund component also invites questions on recurrence, since non-operating benefits of that kind do not annualise. Net, the precedent for a beat-with-soft-guide combination in this sector has been an initial mixed reaction resolving on the guidance rather than the quarter.