Lowe's stock was rising Wednesday after the do-it-yourself retailer's earnings and revenue topped expectations, suggesting the home-improvement industry was making a gradual recovery.

Lowe's shares climbed 2.4% to $248 in premarket trading. Futures tracking the benchmark S&P 500 index were up 0.5%.

The stock was rising after Lowe's posted adjusted earnings in the quarter ended Jan. 31, of $1.93 a share as sales were roughly flat from a year ago at $18.55 billion. Analysts were expecting earnings of $1.84 a share on sales of $18.3 billion, according to FactSet.

The earnings beat could make investors more hopeful about a rebound for the home-improvement business, which has struggled in recent years due to high mortgage rates putting off would-be buyers. Shares in rival Home Depot, which posted solid results of its own Tuesday, ticked up 0.4% ahead of the opening bell.

Lowe's guidance looked a little light, though. The company said it expects total sales of between $83.5 billion and $84.5 billion for the current year. The midpoint of those figures was below the $84.6 billion that analysts surveyed by FactSet were forecasting.

This is breaking news. Read a preview of Lowe's earnings below and check back for more analysis soon.

Home Depot's fourth-quarter earnings report was by no means a blowout one. But it gave investors enough hope about a gradual recovery in home improvement that it lifted Lowe's shares just ahead of the retailer's own quarterly report.

Lowe's is scheduled to release fiscal fourth-quarter earnings Wednesday morning. Shares closed 2.2% higher on Tuesday, while Home Depot stock increased 2.8%.

Home Depot's report gave both stocks a lift. The company topped fourth-quarter earnings expectations and saw same-store sales turn positive for the first time in two years. While its full-year guidance fell short, executives indicated in a call with analysts that 2025 could be a slightly better year than 2024 -- even though the macroeconomic uncertainty and higher rates that have dissuaded consumers from embarking on more renovation projects will persist.

"We expect the underlying momentum in the business that we saw in the back half of 2024 to continue into 2025," said Richard McPhail, Home Depot's chief financial officer.

The company saw "broader engagement across home improvement-related projects," as well higher sales as a result of ongoing recovery efforts from last fall's hurricanes. That bodes well for Lowe's: If Home Depot saw an uptick in demand, however slight, it's likely Lowe's saw that improvement, too.

On the flip side, growth at Home Depot's business tailored to professional contractors outstripped that of its do-it-yourself business, which could be a downside for Lowe's, whose business skews more toward the DIY side.

Analysts expect Lowe's will post adjusted earnings of $1.84 a share on $18.3 billion of revenue, according to FactSet consensus estimates. Same-store sales are expected to decline by 1.8% from last year.

The performance of home improvement retailers like Lowe's and Home Depot is closely tied to the housing market because people tend to renovate homes just before selling or buying a new place. High interest and mortgage rates have kept many potential buyers on the sidelines, and many on Wall Street have been expecting rates to come down to see a big rebound in home improvement.

Home Depot's results suggest the recovery may not be wholly tied to that lower-rate environment, but rather to the point where consumers grow comfortable enough with higher rates to bite the bullet and buy a new house or renovate their existing one regardless of the monthly payments.

"We believe homeowners have been holding out for a gift in mortgage rates, and this will simply not happen near-term in our view," wrote Karen Short, an analyst at Melius Research. "As a result, we believe the stalemate will come to a head and this will benefit Home Improvement in general as consumers realize this new 'norm' is just reality and consumers will have to accept this."