Marvin is not reducing store hours because there is a cash flow problem, he’s desperate!
They’re credit is tapped out and they’re struggling to meet Payroll every 2 weeks. The hope is the federal stimulus package comes soon enough to save the company.
Something to think about? How much money has Lowes spent over the past several months to buy back stock in order to inflate the value of the stock for the institutional investors. Currently the stock is tanking.
Something to think about? How much money has Lowes spent over the past several months to buy back stock in order to inflate the value of the stock for the institutional investors. Currently the stock is tanking.
Where the f— do you get your information?
Marvin has to make hay while the sun shines. Think of Lowe's exposure to China. Thy have product in the pipeline but that will soon come to an abrupt halt. No matter what there is going to be a serious gap in the supply chain.
Also, one has to consider the money that Lowe's owes China and what impact that will have upon the business.
Lowes has a lot of cash flowing through the business but also has huge liabilities. They also have taken a serious hit on stock buy backs, and they still have to pay dividends.
Home Depot can weather the storm because of their foresight and investments in an online presence. Lowes has Sterling.
@1kkc+1444b4V7
It did that using stock buybacks, that's why. The airlines did that too and they are on the precipice of total collapse regardless of whatever dividends they provided or for how long.
Lowe’s is one of only a very few companies that has increase its dividend to shareholders for OVER 50 straight years. Not even HD or Walmart can make that claim. The company has a solid balance sheet and will not only survive this pandemic but probably profit from it as well.
I believe the number that most accurately quantifies cash flow is referred to as free cash flow.
Yes, 39.471 billion in total assets as of Jan 31 2020 (unaudited). However, you left out the 37.499 billion in total liabilities from the same report; which is a dramatic increase from the 30.864 billion reported for the year prior. If you crunch the numbers you will see that the company's net change in total liabilities grew faster than our net change in total assets over the past year. See link below.
https://lowes.gcs-web.com/news-releases/news-release-details/lowes-reports-fourth-quarter-sales-and-earnings-results-9
716 million in cash is the change Lowe's employee's pull from the console to pay an unexpected toll on the highway compared to a company this size. Any action taken needs to be multiplied by the number of stores. If that is their actual cash reserves we all need to be applying to Target or Walmart before corporate can't make payroll.
Idk, the company may be frugal but they have cash, if you check market watch and pull up our most recent balance sheet we have 716 million just in cash. If you go to total assets the company has over 39 Billion. I’m not defending the corporate greed misers I’m just stating facts
Dude they took out the paper towel dispenser from the public and employee bathrooms. They say you know a company is starting to choke when they stop giving away the free stuff they used to - for startups the fridge full of energy drinks and food empties out, for us they start trying to sell paint sticks and refuse to store use water for employees to drink so they don't die.
One of the major reasons that HD can limit their store hours is because of their robust online presence. They seem to have made the right investments at the right time. Lowe's is so far behind the curve it's embarrassing.
Any stimulus LOANS will have restrictions attached. No stock buybacks, no long term corporate debt, income limits and NO executive bonuses. The money allocated should go to the rank and file that actually pay the taxes. Remember, corporations do not pay taxes, they collect them and pass them on to the government.
We, at my store, have felt for some time that Lowe’s has cash flow problems. Lowe’s doesn’t behave like a profitable business, it acts more like a business that is going out if business.
Remember the hour cuts last year during the 100 days? What sense does it make to cut hours during your busiest season.
Appliances has no inventory, I’m constantly having to call other stores and trying to ICB in appliances. Most of the time the customer ends up going to the other store to get what they need.
My friend in paint constantly complains that she has no paint bases to sell, she is out of paint for months not days or weeks. When we started the shelves were full and there was inventory in top stock. Now there is nothing in top stock; it’s used for grills, and the shelves have one or two cans of each.
Don't know if the original post is factual or not but according to our own Q4 2019 quarterly report the company re-purchased $670 million of stock last quarter alone. That would be stock that is now worth about half what it was worth about 3 months ago. See online that both Marvin and Joe are buying Lowe's stock in it's currently depressed state which clearly explains where their priorities are.
As for any potential government bailout, from what I am understanding, congress is not smiling favorably on companies that have been sitting on all their profits/cash by doing massive stock buy backs. The airline industry in particular had close to a decade of heavy profits with massive stock buybacks and are now in trouble. Any government bailouts should be directed towards those at the bottom that can't make their rent payment because they worked for a socially responsible company that either furrowed or laid them off to help stem the COVID-19 spread. But not at Lowe's where it is business as usual (here's a can of Lysol now go back to work).
PS. Still waiting for my appliance inventory at ADC 3434 to get replenished. Five months and still counting the hundreds of thousands in lost sales at my store alone due to lack of inventory. But oh joy we are pressing on with the new IT center and cloud based website that by the way only had single digit sales growth compared to HD's 20+ % sales growth. Perhaps it's time for another meaningless self gratifying podcast. Simply unbelievable!
Hey big brains at corporate headquarters, hows that stock buy back working out for you?
I don’t know if a corporation can buy back stock using margins but if they can and Lowe’s did, then there is going to be real trouble when the brokers make the margin call.
Additionally, we really don’t know what their financial exposure to China is right now. It can’t be a very rosy picture.
Nice work kids.
That would explain a lot.