Lowe’s Companies (LOW) Offering Possible 31.12% Return Over the Next 31 Calendar Days

Lowe's Companies's most recent trend suggests a bullish bias. One trading opportunity on Lowe's Companies is a Bull Put Spread using a strike $105.00 short put and a strike $97.50 long put offers a potential 31.12% return on risk over the next 31 calendar days. Maximum profit would be generated if the Bull Put Spread were to expire worthless, which would occur if the stock were above $105.00 by expiration. The full premium credit of $1.78 would be kept by the premium seller. The risk of $5.72 would be incurred if the stock dropped below the $97.50 long put strike price.

The 5-day moving average is moving down which suggests that the short-term momentum for Lowe's Companies is bearish and the probability of a decline in share price is higher if the stock starts trending.

The 20-day moving average is moving up which suggests that the medium-term momentum for Lowe's Companies is bullish.

The RSI indicator is at 74.66 level which suggests that the stock is neither overbought nor oversold at this time.

To learn how to execute such a strategy while accounting for risk and reward in the context of smart portfolio management, and see how to trade live with a successful professional trader, view more here

---

LATEST NEWS for Lowe's Companies

Retail earnings, Fed Chair Powell testifies, FOMC minutes: What to know in the week ahead
Sun, 17 May 2020 14:58:31 +0000
A deluge of retail earnings and the Federal Reserve will be in focus in the week ahead.

Alibaba, Walmart and Target are about to show retailers’ view of the pandemic
Sun, 17 May 2020 13:00:00 +0000
U.S. retail companies will be eagerly watching Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.’s Friday morning report, when the Chinese e-commerce giant will show what it was like to operate in the heart of the COVID-19 outbreak and emerge on the other side.

Billionaire Ackman Takes New Bet On Blackstone, Trims Chipotle Stake
Sun, 17 May 2020 11:08:23 +0000
Billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square Capital Management Ltd. has bought a $25 million stake in private equity firm Blackstone Group Inc. (BX) in the first quarter.Pershing Square said it built a position of almost 549,000 shares of Blackstone, according to a SEC filing. In addition, the billionaire’s portfolio disclosed a new position in Park Hotels & Resorts Inc. (PK), in which it bought 678,000 shares, valued at about $5.4 million, as of March 31.Shares in Blackstone this year slumped as much as 35% as of March 23. However, since then the stock has seen a nice recovery soaring 42% and trading at $51.07 as of Friday. In the first quarter of the year, Park Hotels shares have lost as much as 81%.The hedge fund manager has also taken some profits. During the first quarter, Pershing divested about 32% of the portfolio’s stake in Chipotle Mexican Grill (CMG). The value of the burrito chain’s shares has more than doubled in the past two months. Furthermore, Ackman bumped up investments in current holdings, including Starbucks (SBUX), Agilent Technologies Inc. (A), Lowes Companies (LOW) and Restaurant Brands International (QSR).Despite strong stock market volatility triggered by the coronavirus pandemic, Pershing’s portfolio this year returned 16.5% on its investments as of May 12.At the beginning of the year, billionaire investor Ackman moved to protect the firm’s stock portfolio against coronavirus-related panic selling in markets by buying credit default swaps. Pershing Square yielded a stellar $2.6 billion from hedging its stock portfolio through the credit protection. Most of the return was invested in buying more shares of the fund’s portfolio companies including, Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc. (HLT) and Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A).Ackman is this year also upbeat about investment into infrastructure projects helping the U.S. economy recover from the repercussions of the coronavirus outbreak. In March, Pershing invested $500 million in Howard Hughes Corp. (HHC), one of the largest real estate development companies in the US.Last week, both Brian Bedell at Deutsche Bank and Christopher Harris at Wells Fargo raised Blackstone’s price target to $47 and $63 respectively from $43 and $58 previously. Bedell has a Hold rating on the stock while Harris views it as a Buy.Overall, TipRanks data shows that Wall Street analysts are cautiously optimistic about the shares with 8 Buys and 4 Holds adding up to a Moderate Buy consensus. The $54.10 average price target implies 5.9% upside potential over the coming year. (See Blackstone stock analysis on TipRanks).Related News: Buffett’s Berkshire Shaves Off 84% Of Its Goldman Sachs Stake Carl Icahn Initiates Position in Delek US Holdings, Boosts Occidental Petroleum Is Royal Caribbean Cruises (RCL) Stock a Buy? This Analyst Says Yes More recent articles from Smarter Analyst: * AstraZeneca Aiming For 30M UK Covid-19 Vaccine Doses By September * Uber’s Latest Takeover Offer Said To be Rejected By GrubHub * Melvin Capital Bets On AutoZone With Sizable New Investment * Ubisoft Sues Google, Apple For Game Copyright Infringement

J.C. Penney Bankruptcy May Not Buy Enough Time
Sat, 16 May 2020 14:54:41 +0000
(Bloomberg Opinion) — When research firm GlobalData surveyed Americans on which stores they were most looking forward to visiting once the Covid-19 pandemic subsided, one household name came out near the bottom, and well below its department-store peers: J.C. Penney. That helps to explain Friday’s late news that the retailer — which began life in 1902 as a store called The Golden Rule — filed for bankruptcy protection. Pushed to the brink by the coronavirus shutdowns, J.C. Penney Co. was seemingly left with no other choice. But years of struggle and strategic missteps had laid the groundwork.After securing $900 million of financing, J.C. Penney will stay open for now, and its next steps include closing some stores, cutting its debt by several billion dollars and looking at alternatives including a sale. Despite those planned survival efforts, it’s hard to see J.C. Penney having a vibrant future.Even before the coronavirus crisis, the retailer, with just under 850 stores in the U.S. and Puerto Rico, had battled to be relevant to shoppers. Changing consumer tastes and incursions from online sellers wreaked havoc on its sales. And so now, unlike in the case of luxury department-store chain Neiman Marcus Group Inc., which also filed for bankruptcy this month, there may be little for a potential acquirer to pick up.The downfall of J.C. Penney — a chain that grew out of a single store opened 118 years ago in Kemmerer, Wyoming by James Cash Penney — is part and parcel with the long, slow decline of the department store. The concept had its heyday from the end of the Second World War through to the 1980s. Often starting life downtown as Americans moved to the suburbs, these venerable names followed, opening in newly built malls. They focused largely on clothing and the items needed to furnish the homes that Americans were buying. Amid the age of mass car ownership, they were more than happy to drive to these retail attractions.For many years, J.C. Penney was known as a family department store. If not somewhere Americans aspired to shop, it offered good value, and solid styles. In fact, it was a bit like Britain’s Marks & Spencer Group Plc, the sort of place you went for back-to-school gear and basics. But at least M&S sold food — because by the 1980s, the environment for department stores was already darkening. In 1988, Walmart opened its first super-center, adding groceries to its non-food selection to encourage more regular visits. At the same time Target Inc., another mass merchant that combined clothing, home furnishings and groceries, was quietly expanding across the U.S.The mid-market, which J.C. Penney had traditionally occupied, was under attack, not just from discounters, but later the internet, which was rapidly displacing department stores as the one-stop shop, and with cheaper, more transparent pricing.By 2011, in an effort to reinvent itself, J.C. Penney appointed Ron Johnson, an executive from Apple Inc. who built the tech giant’s much-admired retail network. Some of his ideas – a communal space in stores for yoga classes and coffee bars and food stands dotted throughout – were directionally right, even if they never got off the ground. Other concepts did come to fruition and were disastrous, such as ditching the coupons that had driven much of J.C. Penney’s traffic.When Johnson was ousted in 2013, the company apologized to customers in a television commercial: “We learned a very simple thing – to listen to you,” it said in the ad. “Come back to J.C. Penney.” Unfortunately, they never did to the same extent.While subsequent leaders Marvin Ellison, now chief executive of home-improvement chain Lowe’s Cos Inc., and current CEO Jill Soltau made progress, the company has yet to regain its stride. It has grappled with messy stores, and a lower proportion of online sales — around 20% — compared with 26% at Macy’s and 33% at Nordstrom.Most recently, Soltau had cut discounting and reduced the amount of stock the chain carries. She also ditched the electrical appliances that Ellison introduced and sought to strengthen Penney’s core clothing offering. But her efforts, however valiant, were no match for weeks of stores being closed. The group was also burdened with net debt of $4.5 billion, including store lease liabilities of just under 8 times Ebitda as of Feb. 1. Penney said late Friday that it owed creditors $8 billion.With the company less constricted by debt, it may be possible for Soltau to turbocharge her recovery plan, which already includes rejuvenating locations. A store in Hurst, Texas shows the way, with a much-improved layout as well as styling, cafes, a fitness center and a barber shop. Soltau insists it’s not a prototype, but with more investment freedom she may be able to inject elements into other stores. She also had already begun to pare back J.C. Penney’s store base. More locations will close, in phases. Stacey Widlitz of SW Retail Advisors estimates J.C. Penney’s footprint could shrink to just 150 stores. Even so, it’s hard to see how the retailer can stave off dwindling mall traffic if nervous shoppers stay home. Distinguishing itself from other mid-market rivals such as Macy’s Inc., which has its own plans for reinvention, will be another challenge.A financial restructuring isn’t a panacea. For retailers to make it through such a process and flourish, there must be a revival of the operating business, too. It’s far from clear whether J.C. Penney — or any new owner — can pull that off. This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.Andrea Felsted is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering the consumer and retail industries. She previously worked at the Financial Times.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinionSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.

Lowe's Earnings: Watch These Trends
Sat, 16 May 2020 13:45:00 +0000
Investors have some big questions for Lowe's (NYSE: LOW) heading into its upcoming first-quarter fiscal 2020 earnings report. On Wednesday, May 20, Lowe's will announce its results for the period that runs through early May and includes several weeks where social distancing tied to the COVID-19 pandemic was in effect. Its stores remained open, but Lowe's still endured some unusual growth pressures in recent weeks.

Related Posts