home depot outlook home depot outlook. Home Depot Inc (HD.N) stood by its sales outlook and raised its profit forecast for the year despite a slow start to the spring selling season, making some investors choose the home improvement chain over rival Lowe's. Lowe's (LOW.N) meanwhile cut its forecast for the year after missing sales and profit estimates in the first quarter. "Home Depot continues to outperform Lowe's on both a sales and operational basis. Our thesis has been that Lowe's should be able to close this gap with Home Depot over the next several quarters, but frankly we have yet to see that progress," RBC Capital Markets Scot Ciccarelli said. Home Depot's forecast also soothed some concerns about demand in the world's largest economy and reassured investors that the slow start to the season was mainly because of bad weather in many parts of the United States. "The customer is back maintaining their home, maybe stepping out a little bit in...