You are given a text that consists of multiple sentences. Your task is to perform abstractive summarization on this text. Use your understanding of the content to express the main ideas and crucial details in a shorter, coherent, and natural sounding text. 
Text: Actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied as a result of various risks, uncertainties, and important factors, including those discussed in the risk factors, MD&A, and other sections of our annual report on Form 10-K and our other SEC filings.
Additionally, we'll be discussing certain non-GAAP financial measures.
We would also like to extend our thoughts and prayers to our associates in India, who are grappling with an aggressive resurgence of COVID in the country.
At Lowe's, we have associates in Bangalore, India in our digital information technology and finance functions, who played a key role in our transformation efforts over the past two years.
To help our team in India safeguard their health, we sent personal protective equipment to our team members there.
We've also made financial commitments to support nonprofit organizations in India that are working to respond to this humanitarian crisis.
As we have moved into the second year of the pandemic, we remain focused on our No.
1 priority, which has always been protecting the health and safety of our associates and communities.
And with that in mind, in Q1, we invested nearly $60 million in support of COVID safety protocols.
Now turning to our results.
Our outstanding performance continued this quarter with total company comparable sales growth of 25.9%.
comps were 24.4% with broad-based growth across all geographic regions and divisions.
In fact, for the quarter, comp sales for all 15 U.S. regions exceeded 18% and all U.S. divisions exceeded 20%.
During the quarter, operating margin expanded 313 basis points on an adjusted basis, leading to diluted earnings per share of $3.21, which is an 81% increase on an adjusted basis over the prior year.
Our outperformance in operating margin was supported by our continued transition to an everyday competitive price strategy, as well as our disciplined pricing and product cost management strategies.
Our improved operating margin also reflects the progress of our operational transformation driven by our perpetual productivity initiatives or PPI.
Bill will discuss our everyday competitive price strategy, pricing, and product cost management, and Joe will provide details on our PPI initiatives later in the call.
On Lowes.com, sales grew 36.5% on top of 80% growth in the first quarter of 2020, which represents a 9% sales penetration this quarter and a two-year comp of 146%.
With customer demand for an integrated omnichannel shopping experience only increasing, we continue to invest in our omnichannel capabilities.
Pro comps outpaced DIY comps with over 30% comps in the quarter.
Although this has been a two-year journey, I'm very pleased with the progress that we made with our Pro customer.
We began by addressing the basics, ensuring that we were carrying the brands and products that Pros need in the job life quantities, and also provided the excellent service this busy customer expects.
And now, we've shifted to the more strategic phase of growth in the Pro by resetting the layout of our stores with the Pro in mind and deepening our relationship with the pro through a loyalty program that provides them with members-only benefits.
Joe will discuss more about the specific initiatives that we're undertaking to serve the Pro, both online and in-store later in the call.
The small and medium-sized Pro is our target customer.
This customer is a frequent shopper who purchases products in multiple departments, which drives increased productivity throughout the store.
And I'm confident that we have a compelling growth opportunity as we continue to improve our engagement with this highly valued customer.
In addition to the strength in Pro, we delivered over 60% comps along with significant increase in customer satisfaction in our installation services business.
We've overhauled this business and improved the service offering by consolidating our provided network and implementing industry-leading technology.
And although all of us are looking forward to a post-COVID world, our research tells us that the importance of the home will remain elevated for many years to come.
And given the increased importance of the home, this quarter, we launched SpringFest, our new reimagined approach to the season.
Our campaign provided inspiration for home projects, so our customers could transport themselves to the destination of their choice without ever leaving the sanctuary of home.
In a moment, Bill will discuss the outstanding results that we're able to generate from this reimagination of spring.
Now turning to Canada.
We delivered comp growth that outpaced the U.S. despite several COVID-related operating restrictions.
This quarter, we also announced the acquisition of STAINMASTER brand, which is the most recognized and trusted carpet brand on the market today.
With this acquisition, we're building on our decade-long exclusive position as the only national home improvement retailer to carry STAINMASTER carpet.
This is an important step in our Total Home strategy as we seek to elevate our product assortment and provide consumers with the products and brands they trust for every project across the entire home.
We see great potential to extend the STAINMASTER brand in other product areas, where we can continue to leverage its high-performance characteristics.
This acquisition also expands our private brand portfolio joining the family of private brands, including allen + roth, Kobalt, and Project Source.
We're focused on expanding our private brand penetration with a balanced brand strategy that includes a powerful national brand portfolio that appeals to both Pro and DIY customers.
At the same time, we'll offer a select number of high-value private brands, building consumer loyalty for these products.
Our results in the first quarter continue to give me confidence that we're making the right investments to accelerate our market share gains through our Total Home strategy by enhancing our investments in Pro, online, installation services, localization, and elevating our product assortment.
These initiatives will allow us to drive sustainable growth as we deliver a total home solution for our Pro and our DIY customers.
Before I close, I'd like to once again extend my appreciation to our frontline associates.
In the first quarter, I had an opportunity to visit stores in nine of our 15 geographic regions.
As I observed, our associates hard at work serving customers through very challenging circumstances, my respect and admiration continues to grow.
In recognition of these efforts, we decided to close our stores and distribution centers on Easter Sunday for the second year in a row to give our associates a much-deserved day off to spend with their families and loved ones.
I'm also pleased to announce that for the fifth consecutive quarter, 100% of our stores earned a winning together profit-sharing bonus, a record $152 million payout to our frontline hourly associates.
This represents an incremental $70 million above the target level.
While the near-term macro outlook remains uncertain, we're confident that we will continue to outperform the market driving both market share gains and improved operating efficiency.
Our two-year-plus journey to transform Lowe's has given us improved operating capabilities and a technology infrastructure that's dramatically enhanced, which in turn makes us more agile and able to respond quickly to any potential changes in the business environment.
We delivered U.S. comparable sales growth of 24.4% in the first quarter.
Our compelling offerings, great values, and improved in-stocks allowed us to capitalize on the continued strong demand for home improvement products.
Consistent with recent trends, growth was broad-based across Pro and DIY customers, in-store, and online, and across product categories.
In fact, 13 of 15 merchandising departments generated comps over 15% and all merchandising departments were up more than 20% on a two-year comp basis.
As Marvin described, we were extremely pleased with how consumers responded to our SpringFest event.
Similar to our approach to the winter holidays, we extended this event across four weeks to create a new sense of excitement and to prompt return trips, while also avoiding congestion in our stores.
We offered four different weekly giveaways of garden-to-go kits that provided everything needed for a fun spring project, and also strengthen our customer connection through a required MyLowe's activation online.
The success of this event was due to the great organizational alignment across our stores, marketing, and merchant teams.
Turning now to our top-performing categories.
Lumber again delivered the highest comp driven by strong Pro demand and unprecedented inflation in the category.
Over the past year, as lumber products have been in tight supply, our merchants have worked closely with our suppliers and successfully secured new sources and additional product to ensure that we can maintain a competitive in-stock position in the category.
Strong in-stocks in this tight market have allowed us to continue to strengthen customer relationships, especially with the Pro.
In addition to lumber, we delivered comps exceeding 30% in electrical, decor, kitchens, and bath, and seasonal and outdoor living.
Our electrical category posted strong comps in the quarter, driven by inflation in copper, as well as solid demand from the robust repair/remodel market.
In support of our total home market share acceleration strategy, we drove strong engagement with our customers as reflected by increased sales in decor, and kitchens, and bath.
The strong sales in our decor category were driven by great performance in home accents as we continue to elevate our product assortments, especially with our recently refreshed allen + roth brand.
In fact, this quarter, our merchant teams launched new spring collections that span across a broad array of product categories through a lifestyle point of view with inspirational on-trend designs that gives our customers the confidence they need to decorate their homes in style.
Our kitchens and bath department outperformed in the quarter as homeowners continue to enhance their living spaces and economic stimulus supported bigger-ticket projects.
Finally, seasonal and outdoor living benefited from the early demand in patio and grills as homeowners embrace the arrival of spring.
We also saw strong sales in the newly launched battery-powered EGO and SKIL brands as consumers are attracted to the convenience and the quality of their zero-emission rechargeable outdoor power equipment.
In fact, during the quarter, EGO delivered some of their largest weekly sales results in the history of their brand.
The addition of EGO and SKIL has only strengthened our No.
1 position in outdoor power equipment and truly complements the leading brands we carry such as John Deere, Honda, Husqvarna, Aaron's, and CRAFTSMAN.
And during the quarter, we continued to see strong demand for our other powerhouse brands like Weber and Char-Griller, which remain the top two brands in outdoor grilling.
We were excited to add new brands to our arsenal, including the exclusive launch of FLEX cordless power tools.
The FLEX brand is known by the most discerning builders, contractors, and trade professionals.
And this new lineup of power tools offers the latest innovation, more power, and faster charging than the competition.
We are also excited to bring the Lesco brand of fertilizer to Lowe's this spring.
A brand that is trusted by landscape pros and knowledgeable homeowners alike.
The addition of FLEX power tools and Lesco fertilizer further complements our powerful Pro brand lineup, which already includes Simpson Strong-Tie, DEWALT, Spyder, Bosch, Eaton, and SharkBite.
As Marvin mentioned, we delivered strong sales growth of 36.5% and a two-year growth of 146% on Lowes.com.
We continue to enhance the online customer experience with improved search and navigation functionality that allows consumers to easily shop for products across categories.
Additionally, we continue to see strong download rates of our mobile app as we are working to enhance our customer loyalty through a great mobile experience.
As Marvin mentioned, we delivered a solid improvement in our product margins this quarter, driven by disciplined vendor cost management, improved and enhanced pricing systems, and our continued transition to a more relevant everyday competitive price strategy that is complemented by targeted seasonally relevant promotions.
All of these initiatives are part of our ongoing merchandising excellence strategy.
We will continue to leverage and refine these capabilities as we deliver strong everyday values to our consumers, while we continue to manage our product margins by taking a data-driven portfolio approach to pricing.
Our Total Home strategy will continue to allow us to expand and elevate our product and brand assortments and take market share.
In the first quarter, our associates were laser-focused on providing excellent customer service, supporting a safe store environment, and delivering record sales volumes.
As Marvin mentioned, 100% of our stores earned a "Winning Together" profit-sharing bonus, a record $152 million payout to our frontline hourly associates.
As Marvin mentioned, our focus on perpetual productivity improvement, or PPI, initiative continued to yield results during this quarter as we leverage store payroll by using technology to reduce tasking hours, improve customer service, and increase sales productivity.
For example, we rolled out digital signs, first in appliances, and most recently, in our lumber department.
These signs cut down on associate tasking labor, and they also support better product margin performance as we can now more rapidly implement price changes in line with the market.
We're also leveraging an improved freight flow app, creating a fully digital process that gives our associates better line of sight to when products will arrive at our stores.
The app, which was developed in-house, even helped store associates to prioritize the incoming merchandise so they can quickly and efficiently position the product on the sales floor for our customers.
And we launched secure mobile checkout, which we are using to improve the speed of service in high traffic areas inside the store and on the exterior of the store in areas such as outside lawn and garden and under the Pro canopy.
This checkout app developed in-house is allowing us to take care of customers from scanning items, tendering payment, and printing or emailing receipts before they even join a line.
Our customers are delighted with the solution, especially on busy weekends.
We are also driving productivity in our in-store fulfillment.
This quarter, we expanded our contact with shopping options by completing the rollout of BOPIS lockers to 100% of our U.S. stores in April.
Customers really enjoy these touchless easy-to-use lockers.
In fact, this has already become the highest-rated store fulfillment options.
Having built these lockers in 100% of our U.S. stores will allow us to expand our omnichannel capabilities, further improve customer satisfaction, and limit customer congestion at our service desk.
Turning to our Pros.
As Marvin mentioned, Pro outpaced DIY in the quarter with over 30% comps.
We continue to gain momentum with the Pro through our improved in-stock inventory levels, our enhanced service offerings, and our new Pro loyalty program.
Our Pro sales associates have also begun to leverage our new CRM platform to proactively engage with our Pro customers and sell the entire project to them.
Our most compelling growth opportunity with the Pro is expanding the share of wallet with our existing customers.
Our new CRM platform, as well as the redesigned store layout that aligns product adjacencies, enable us to more effectively serve their needs for the entire project across all of their jobs.
And we continue to enhance the shopping experience for our Pro customers, small to medium-sized businesses who are always pressed for time.
We are launching a tailored shopping experience created specifically for Pros to ensure that the time they spend away from their job site is efficient and productive.
We're introducing new convenience products at checkout and services like dedicated Pro trailer parking and phone charging stations, all designed to help add value to each trip the Pros take, thus cutting down on the number of stops they make throughout the day.
We're also enhancing their online experiences with the ongoing migration of LowesForPros to the cloud.
This will give our Pro customers access to incremental options that our DIY customers already have on lowes.com, and it will allow us to more quickly add new Pro-only features in the future, including a personalized app experience.
Both in-store and online, we continue to demonstrate that Lowe's is on a mission to be the new home for Pros.
As Marvin mentioned, we are seeing terrific momentum in our installation business, with over 60% comps this quarter.
As a reminder, just two years ago, this was a money-losing business and poor customer satisfaction.
Although we are lapping Q1 2020 results that were pressured by COVID, we are very pleased with the overall execution and the trajectory of this business.
In closing, I cannot be more pleased with the improvements we are making in our stores as reflected in our strong net promoter scores in a recent third-party study.
Our executive officers, senior officers, merchants, and field leaders are out visiting stores on a weekly basis to ensure that we are listening to and supporting our frontline associates.
This remains a very difficult environment to operate retail stores in, and I could not be prouder of the accomplishments of this team and their commitment and hard work from our frontline associates.
In Q1, we generated $4 billion in free cash flow, driven by improved operational execution and continued strong consumer demand.
We returned $3.5 billion to our shareholders through both a combination of dividends and share repurchases.
During the quarter, we paid $440 million in dividends at $0.60 per share.
We also repurchased 16.8 million shares for $3.1 billion at an average price of approximately $182 a share.
We have approximately $17 billion remaining on our share repurchase authorization.
Capital expenditures totaled $461 million in the quarter as we invest in our strategic initiatives to drive the business and to support our growth.
We ended the quarter with $6.7 billion of cash and cash equivalents on the balance sheet, which includes proceeds from our $2 billion notes offering in March.
In addition, we entered into a $1 billion term loan facility in April, which remains undrawn.
Our balance sheet remains extremely healthy with adjusted debt to EBITDA at 2.07 times at the end of the quarter, well below our long-term target of 2.75 times.
Now, turning to the income statement.
In Q1, we generated diluted earnings per share of $3.21, an increase of 81% compared to adjusted diluted earnings per share last year.
This growth was due to strong sales growth, improved gross margin rate, and SG&A leverage as a result of strong execution across many facets of our business.
Please note that in the prior-year quarter, there was a very modest impact on diluted earnings per share related to the Canadian restructuring effort.
My comments from this point forward will include approximations when appropriate and comparisons to certain non-GAAP measures where applicable.
Strong sales growth was driven by several factors, including a continued consumer focus on the home, a favorable weather backdrop across the country, commodity inflation, especially within the lumber category, consumer support from the March government stimulus package, and our improved execution as we continue to elevate our product and service offerings.
Q1 sales were $24.4 billion, driven by a comparable sales increase of 25.9%.
This was a result of a balanced contribution from both ticket and transactions as comparable average store ticket grew 14.1% and transaction count grew 11.8%, with strong repeat rates from both new and existing customers.
While a little difficult to measure, we estimate that the March government stimulus checks drove 300 basis points of growth, while commodity inflation benefited comps by 460 basis points in the quarter.
Lumber and other commodity prices remained at elevated levels versus last year.
U.S. comp sales were up 24.4% in the quarter, consistent with results from the past few quarters.
Growth was well balanced across DIY and Pro customers, selling channels, geographies, and nearly all merchandise departments.
Our U.S. comps were 24% in February, 35.9% in March, and 13.9% in April.
February comps were negatively impacted by the harsh winter storms that hit Texas and several other states, while March were positively impacted by storm recovery and the third round of stimulus.
Additionally, we began cycling last year's COVID-related spikes in the band in the second half of April, and those more difficult comparisons impacted April comps.
Looking at U.S. comp growth on a two-year basis from 2019 to '21, February sales increase 30.3%, March increased 48.1%, and April increased 37.1%.
Gross margin was 33.29%, up 19 basis points from last year and up 183 basis points as compared to Q1 of '19.
Product margin rate improved 165 basis points.
As Bill mentioned, our teams effectively leveraged our merchandising excellent strategy to manage product cost and retail pricing throughout the quarter.
While we are seeing inflation in some product categories, our merchants work to diligently mitigate and minimize vendor cost increases.
Additionally, our supply chain team leveraged our scale and carrier relationships to minimize distribution cost pressures experienced throughout the retail sector.
On the pricing side, our shift to an everyday competitive price strategy continued to benefit our margins in Q1 as we leverage enhanced pricing tools to improve margin across the array of products that we sell.
We began to see improving trends from our increased focus on shrink control this quarter, with shrink improving sequentially from Q4 of 2020.
However, results pressure gross margin by 15 basis points versus last year.
We expect that our shrink performance will continue to improve as we move throughout the year.
These benefits to product margin rate were partially offset by 90 basis points of pressure from product mix shifts due to lumber inflation and a less favorable product mix, 20 basis points of pressure from supply chain costs as we continue to invest in our omnichannel capabilities, and 20 basis points of pressure from credit revenue.
SG&A of 18.4% levered 288 basis points, compared to adjusted SG&A in LY, driven primarily by lower COVID-related costs, as well as operating costs leverage resulting from strong sales and our ongoing productivity from our PPI initiative.
As anticipated, we incurred nearly $60 million of COVID-related expenses, as compared to approximately $320 million of COVID-related expenses last year.
The $260 million reduction in these expenses generated 140 basis points of SG&A leverage.
Additionally, strong sales and a focus on efficiency and productivity allowed us to generate leverage of 100 basis points in operating salaries, 35 basis points in occupancy expense, and 5 basis points in advertising.
Now, operating profit was $3.2 billion, an increase of 63% over LY.
Operating margins of 13.3% of sales for the quarter was up 317 basis points to the prior year, driven by both improved operating leverage and improved gross margin rate.
The effective tax rate was 23.5%.
The tax rate was slightly lower than expected, primarily due to a tax benefit related to divesting of certain employee stock options.
We continued to build up our inventory levels throughout the quarter to meet the sustained high levels of customer demand while improving our in-stock position.
At quarter-end, inventory was $18.4 billion, up $2.2 billion from Q4 levels, in line with seasonal patterns.
This reflects an increase of $4.1 billion from Q1 of 2020 when inventory levels were pressured due to unexpected spikes in demand, as well as COVID-related supply disruptions.
Of note, this includes a year-over-year increase of $780 million related specifically to inflation.
Now, before I close, let me comment on our current trends and how we are planning our business for the balance of 2021.
Our year-to-date results are tracking ahead of the robust market scenario that we covered in our December Investor Update.
The underlying drivers of home improvement demand appear to be more resilient and stable than we originally forecasted.
Those factors build our confidence in our ability to deliver strong results on top of an exceptional year in 2020, including 12% operating margins and flat gross margin rates for the year.
We remain confident that our total home strategy will enable us to capture market share.
We are very encouraged by our performance in Q1, including our strong sales volume even as we begin to cycle last year's mid-April surge in demand.
Month to date, May U.S. comp sales trends are materially consistent with April performance levels on a two-year comparable basis.
Looking forward, year-over-year comparisons remain difficult throughout the remainder of the year.
Also, we continue to see COVID restrictions in some areas across Canada.
As markets reopen, we are closely monitoring consumer behavior, anticipating a potential modest shift in spending away from the home.
We remain agile and ready to respond to whatever environment we face this year with our focus on gaining market share throughout 2021 while improving operating margins.
With regards to our quarterly performance, please note that we are cycling particularly high gross margin levels in Q2 of LY.
In the prior quarter, there was an industrywide pullback in promotions and a more favorable product mix.
As a result, we currently anticipate a moderate decline in gross margin rates in Q2.
Despite this moderate year-over-year decline, our gross margin rate is expected to expand nicely over pre-pandemic 2019 levels.
Investments and pricing, vendor cost management, and our everyday competitive promotional strategy have been driving improvements in our gross margin performance over the past two years.
As I stated earlier, we continue to expect to deliver flat gross margin rates for 2021.
Further, we expect the business to generate robust levels of free cash flow.
We plan to invest $2 billion in capex this year to drive future growth and returns as we continue our disciplined approach to capital allocation with $9 billion in planned share repurchases this year while also supporting our dividend.
In closing, we're very excited about the momentum in our business and our ability to deliver significant shareholder value over the long term.

user
lowe's companies q1 earnings per share $3.21.
q1 earnings per share $3.21.
q1 sales $24.4 billion versus refinitiv ibes estimate of $23.86 billion.
q1 earnings per share $3.21 excluding items.
continues to plan for $9 billion in share repurchases and $2 billion in capital expenditures in fiscal 2021.
currently tracking ahead of robust market scenario provided at its december 9, 2020 investor update.
qtrly comparable sales increased 25.9%.

assistant