Lowe’s price target raised to $282 from $279 at Bernstein

Bernstein analyst Zhihan Ma raised the firm’s price target on Lowe’s to $282 from $279 and keeps an Outperform rating on the shares. The firm says that going into home improvement earnings, investor expectations are again muted for Home Depot (HD) and Lowe’s (LOW). Macro questions will be asked, but both companies’ Complex Pro strategies will also be top of mind. Bernstein expects positive comparable sales for Lowe’s and Home Depot in Q3. There was good weather in the summer, but the lack of a strong hurricane season should be a 55bps and 100bps headwind to comps for Home Depot and Lowe’s respectively, although it will be slight margin boost, the firm adds.