Lowe's holds up despite housing woes

It stays financially strong with plentifulness of hard cash and first-class longer-term growth prospects, but the current industrywide jobs can't be ignored. The Home Improvement Research Institute foretells gross sales of home-repair and remodeling merchandises will worsen 1.3 percentage this twelvemonth and doesn't anticipate the lodging marketplace to better until mid-2008. Shares of Lowe's are down 20 percentage this twelvemonth followers last year's 6 percentage decline. It goes on to steal marketplace share from Home Terminal and Sears in place appliances. As big as Lowe's is, it throws just a 7 percentage share of the U.S. home-improvement market, so there stays possible in enlargement and acquisitions. For now, it is slowing its gait a bit. It runs about 1,400 storage warehouse stores, and programs 150 to 155 new gaps in the U.S. this year. Its projection of yearly new-store gaps from 2008 to 2010 is a slightly less-ambitious One Hundred Thirty-Five to 145 stores. It also is test-marketing littler supplies and more than supplies in big metropolitan areas. Its first Canadian shop in the Toronto country open ups this year, and it have programs for supplies in United Mexican States in 2009. But it's unclear how well the Lowe's conception will interpret in foreign markets. Net Income are expected to worsen 2 percentage in its financial twelvemonth ending in January and rise 7 percentage the followers year. Q: The consequences of Janus Contrarian Fund expression too good to be true. Are there a catch? F.F., via the Internet A: The $8 billion Janus Contrarian Fund (JSVAX) is up 26 percentage over the past 12 calendar months and have a 23 percentage three-year annualized return. Both consequences rank in the top 2 percentage of big growing and value funds. "It's a good monetary fund for investors who don't mind its go-anywhere approach," said Saint Andrew Gogerty, an analyst with Morningstar Inc. inch Chicago. "But because portfolio director Saint David Dekker throws battered choices if he wishes their long-term potential, there is always the possible that those choices won't turn around." Janus Contrarian stands for a alone retention for investors with the forbearance to throw it for the long term, Gogerty said. Its retentions in troubled Owens-Illinois Inc. paid off handsomely, and it have recently benefited from international holdings. When contention hits a nice company's shares, Dekker often travels quickly to purchase while they're temporarily bargain-priced. In complaint since the monetary fund was launched in 2000, Dekker went to Janus Capital in 1992 as an analyst and have managed other common finances and private accounts. His flexible scheme benefits from his firm's big research staff; he seeks out all types of companies with strong hard cash flow, accelerating tax returns and quality management. One-fourth of Janus Contrarian's holdings are in fiscal services, with 20 percentage in industrial stuffs and 15 percentage in media. Top retentions recently were Owens-Illinois, Autonomy Global, Banishment Health Care, Ceridian, Tenaga Nasional, St. Joe, Reliance Industries, J.C. Penney, NRG Energy and Plum Brook Timber. This "no-load" (no gross sales charge) monetary fund necessitates a lower limit initial investing of $2,500 and have a low yearly disbursal ratio of 0.94 percent. Saint Andrew Leckey is a Tribune Media Services columnist. E-mail him at yourmoney@tribune.com.