Lowe’s reported their financial performance for Q4 2023 and full-year 2023.
The company blamed a decrease in Q4 2023 performance on “a slowdown in DIY demand and unfavorable January winter weather,” and said that “Pro customer comparable sales were flat for the quarter.”
Q4 2023 Sales: $18.6 billion (down from $22.4 billion in Q4 2022)
Q4 2023 Net Earnings: $1.02 billion (up from $957 million in Q4 2022)
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The Q4 2023 and 2022 periods include the 3 months ending 2/2/2024 and 2/3/2023, respectively.
2023 Sales: $86.4 billion (down from $97.1 billion in 2022)
2023 Net Earnings: $7.73 billion (up from $6.44 billion in 2022)
The company expects performance to slide a bit in 2024, estimating comparable sales to be down 2 to 3%.
Let’s compare these figures to Home Depot’s figures for 2023 and the 3-month period (Q4) ending 1/28/2024.
Lowe’s Q4 2023 Sales: $18.6 billion
Home Depot Q4 2023 Sales: $34.8 billion
Lowe’s 2023 Sales: $86.4 billion
Home Depot 2023 Sales: $152.7 billion
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As of 2/2/2024, Lowe’s operated 1,746 stores. As of 1/28/2024, Home Depot operated 2,335 stores (2,015 in the USA, 182 in Canada, 138 in Mexico).
Lowe’s CEO says that they “delivered strong operating profit and improved customer satisfaction, despite the continued pullback in DIY spending.”
Marvin Ellison, Lowe’s chairman, president, and CEO, also said:
We are also pleased to award $140 million in discretionary bonuses to our frontline associates in recognition of their exceptional customer service in 2023.
It was recently reported on social media that the one-time bonus will be $400 for eligible full-time hourly store employees and $200 for eligible part-time workers. Eligible salaried managers and supervisors will receive a bonus of $5000.
There’s a bit of chatter and controversy about the bonus, as it seems department supervisors are being treated as hourly store employees, meaning they’ll get the far lower bonus amount.
Lowe’s said:
In total, the company returned $8.9 billion to shareholders through share repurchases and dividends in fiscal 2023.
In 2023, Lowe’s paid $2.5 billion in dividends and repurchased $6.3 billion in shares.
This is part of their “capital allocation” strategy.
The company remains committed to a best-in-class capital allocation strategy focused on driving long-term, sustainable shareholder value.
Separately, Lowe’s sent out an email blast today, announcing another new rewards program:
We are excited to announce MyLowe’s Rewards, a new way to save and earn rewards by shopping at Lowe’s! As a current Lowes.com account holder, you will be automatically enrolled into the new program.
With the new Lowe’s rewards program, customers can earn points towards “MyLowe’s Money.”
The email also says that Lowe’s credit card holders will get more rewards. A reader emailed me yesterday, complaining that Lowe’s credit card interest rate will be increasing to an APR of 32.99%. I have not yet been able to verify this.
Existing MyLowe’s key fobs will stop working on March 7, 2024.
Steve L
Home Depot’s sales are almost double Lowe’s so ratios might be better if trying to evaluate corporate performance
Gross profit is earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, amortization, and tax
Lowe’s 2023 fiscal year
Sales –> 100%
Cost of Sales –> 66.6%
Admin –> 18.0%
Gross Profit –> 15.4%
Home Depot 2023 fiscal year
Sales –> 100%
Cost of Sales –> 66.6%
Admin –> 17.4%
Gross Profit –> 16.0%
I had expected Home Depot to have better ratios than Lowe’s; but, Cost of Sales is the same and Admin is only slightly better.
Cullen
> I had expected Home Depot to have better ratios than Lowe’s
Me too. Interesting that their larger volume doesn’t afford them more margin especially when I consider that Home Depot in-house brands do really well and should be pure profit for them.
Ezzy
Bonus to employees “in recognition of their exceptional customer service in 2023”. I’m sorry. Has the CEO been into any Lowe’s stores? What customer service? I’m a handyman and constantly going to the nearest store whether it’s Home Depot or Lowe’s. Except that I’d rather drive an extra 10 minutes out of my way to go to a Home Depot instead of a Lowe’s in my area of NJ. At Lowe’s if I need help for whatever reason I’ll take at least an extra 20 minutes. All the stores in my area are severely understaffed compared to the Home Depots in my area. And what staff they do have are clueless about their departments. There’s 3 Home Depots and 3 Lowe’s around town.
DC
Not only that, the employees at our Lowes are rude. Mostly all don’t greet you with a Hi or Hello. If you have questions, there’s always a group of sales clerks talking story about the game or their trip to Las Vegas. When they see you approach they scatter like roaches.
Home Depot is 100% busier but ask if you need help.
eddie sky
Ezzy, you live near me? 😛
I got Lowes in Flemington (hard to access), Hillsborough, West Windsor (aka Princeton-fa-fa-fa-), Hamilton Twp, and then over in PA…(I visit friends near Warrington and hit one there, across from the HD)
and HomeDepots, there is Ewing twp, West Windsor, Hamilton Twp, East Windsor, Flemington, South Brunswick (that one sucks), then over in PA with Langhorne, Bristol (overflow for Langhorne) and up near Warrington (that is a haul but when visiting friends)…
I’ve found it depends on day/time. Lowes in WestWindsor has helpful staff, but the store manager has something going on with contractors (I would love the area manager to look into the guy… something shady I heard from several people).
However, Home Depots near me, except the Hamilton one, seems to be understaffed, rude as fuck customers and the joke is still: self checkout.
I will go out of my way to the Pro Checkout. I don’t care if the guy infront of me has 50 sheets of plywood… I’ll wait than deal with SelfCheckout.
Oh and the curse of no more plastic bags…bring your own.. .and do we customers see and discount? Nope.
Nate
My Lowe’s stores here are much more focused on customer service than Home Depot, which, in my area generally sucks and is flat-out rude or dismissive. That said, the big box stores are generally the worst for quality customer service. The local hardware stores are generally the best.
chillb
Opposite to my area, the Lowes staff is always more helpful and Home Depot staff seems non existent.
MFC
So the Lowes near me is super friendly and I’m treated like family, which honestly makes me not want to go there because I hate small talk. I’m there to get products and get out. Also, a lot of them have no idea what they’re doing. One of the Homedepots in my area is fine, not friendly, but not unhelpful. It’s the perfect blend of professionalism. Another Homedepot is terrible. It’s like they all think you’re on crack and are trying to pull something on them. Can’t blame them too much, but I don’t typically give off the crack vibe.
None of them can get a quote back to me in a decent timeframe. For Lowes I have to go search for the SKUs myself and even then they’ll pick the wrong items. For Homedepot they’ll cancel 10% of the things on my order and never tell me until I’m looking for it in the pile of materials.
The big box stores give me about 20% of the stress that I deal with as a GC.
Terry
Generally it’s the same here in the Augusta, Georgia area . Home Depot is always staffed better and their employees seem more knowledgeable. Personally I’ve always been a Lowe’s guy but have changed to HD over the last few years. I only go to Lowe’s now if I want a Craftsman product. I have a Craftsman themed workshop. I’m nostalgic about the Craftsman brand because I grew up poor and we couldn’t afford Craftsman back in the day. Today, my tool of choice is Milwaukee. I was a DeWalt guy but gave my DeWalt tools to my son when he got married.
Matt L.
The issue I have is that their rewards program now requires you to have their app instead of just scanning a barcode. No thanks, I’ll start going to Ace when it opens near me, or take the longer trek to Home Depot.
Frank D
That is all YMMV. By region or even by store.
I typically have the total opposite experience, and much prefer Lowes over HD, when it comes to staff.
^^^ Reply in error. Was commenting on HD vs Lowes.
NoDak Farming
My Lowe’s experiences match those that are noticing low staff. It can be a real challenge to track down an employee out on the floor. And unfortunately it seems like they aren’t offered much training for the department that they work in. The only reason I go to Lowe’s is if it’s for a particular style I’m looking for. Like for example I’m looking for a light fixture that will suite a particular style differently than what Menards has on hand. And just about always, Menards has Lowe’s beat on price too.
My nearest Home Depot is 150 miles away. There used to be one in Bismarck, witch is 80 miles away, and is where most of my shopping takes place. It opened in 2005 and closed down three years later. This was at that time when Home Depot’s newest CEO was trying to rescue Home Depot by slashing staff at stores. It didn’t work too well in a town that was new to the Home Depot brand.