Winners and losers from earnings season
Earnings season for the 30 companies tracked by the HCN Stock Watch ended last week with the quarterly reports from Sears Holdings (not good) and Toro Company (not bad).
Overall, the sales data from the publicly traded companies focused on home improvement and building materials shows a trend toward growth. Twenty-one companies showed sales gains over the previous year’s quarter, and nine showed sales declines.
Analysis of the sales data also shows:
The good: Eagle Materials and Stock Building Supply reported double-digit sales gains, 19.3% and 12.6%, respectively.
The bad: Punishing weather was a common theme across the spectrum, contributing to nine companies’ posting quarterly sales declines.
The ugly: Louisiana-Pacific sales of $445 million declined 16% from the prior-year quarter, the largest percentage decline on the Stock Watch.
Paint companies fared well in the earnings season, which ran from March 14 through May 22. Valspar sales gained 9.6%. Sherwin-Williams sales were up 9.2%.
Quotable: “The theme for this year’s spring plan was ‘Spring is Calling.’ It didn’t call as early as we initially expected, but when it did, we were well prepared and where id did, we performed well.”
-- Mike Jones, Lowe’s chief customer officer.