LOWES COMPANIES INC
For the period ended Jan 31, 2025. Filed Mar 24, 2025.
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FY2025 · Filed Mar 24, 2025
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Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm
To the shareholders and the Board of Directors of Lowe’s Companies, Inc.
Opinion on the Financial Statements
We have audited the accompanying consolidated balance sheets of Lowe’s Companies, Inc. and subsidiaries (the “Company”) as of January 31, 2025 and February 2, 2024, the related consolidated statements of earnings, comprehensive income, shareholders’ deficit, and cash flows, for each of the three years in the period ended January 31, 2025, and the related notes (collectively referred to as the “financial statements”). In our opinion, the financial statements present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of the Company as of January 31, 2025 and February 2, 2024, and the results of its operations and its cash flows for each of the three years in the period ended January 31, 2025, in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America.
We have also audited, in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States) (PCAOB), the Company's internal control over financial reporting as of January 31, 2025, based on criteria established in Internal Control– Integrated Framework (2013) issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission and our report dated March 24, 2025, expressed an unqualified opinion on the Company's internal control over financial reporting.
Basis for Opinion
These financial statements are the responsibility of the Company's management. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on the Company's financial statements based on our audits. We are a public accounting firm registered with the PCAOB and are required to be independent with respect to the Company in accordance with the U.S. federal securities laws and the applicable rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the PCAOB.
We conducted our audits in accordance with the standards of the PCAOB. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements are free of material misstatement, whether due to error or fraud. Our audits included performing procedures to assess the risks of material misstatement of the financial statements, whether due to error or fraud, and performing procedures that respond to those risks. Such procedures included examining, on a test basis, evidence regarding the amounts and disclosures in the financial statements. Our audits also included evaluating the accounting principles used and significant estimates made by management, as well as evaluating the overall presentation of the financial statements. We believe that our audits provide a reasonable basis for our opinion.
Critical Audit Matters
The critical audit matter communicated below is a matter arising from the current-period audit of the financial statements that was communicated or required to be communicated to the audit committee and that (1) relates to accounts or disclosures that are material to the financial statements and (2) involved our especially challenging, subjective, or complex judgments. The communication of critical audit matters does not alter in any way our opinion on the financial statements, taken as a whole, and we are not, by communicating the critical audit matter below, providing a separate opinion on the critical audit matter or on the accounts or disclosures to which it relates.
Merchandise Inventory – Vendor Funds – Refer to Note 1 to the financial statements
Critical Audit Matter Description
The Company receives funds from vendors in the normal course of business, principally as a result of purchase volumes, early payments, or sales-based promotions of vendors’ products. Generally, these vendor funds do not represent the reimbursement of specific, incremental, and identifiable costs incurred by the Company to sell the vendor’s product. Therefore, the Company treats these funds as a reduction in the cost of inventory and are recognized as a reduction of cost of sales when the inventory is sold. Funds that are determined to be reimbursements of specific, incremental, and identifiable costs incurred to sell vendors’ products are recorded as an offset to the related expense. Due to the diversity of the individual vendor agreements, the Company performs analyses and reviews historical trends throughout the year and confirms actual amounts with select vendors to ensure the amounts earned are appropriately recorded. Amounts accrued throughout the year could be impacted if actual purchase volumes differ from projected annual purchase volumes, especially in the case of programs that provide for increased funding when graduated purchase volumes are met.
We identified the completeness and accuracy of vendor funds as a critical audit matter given the significance of vendor funds to the financial statements and volume of the individual vendor agreements. This required an increased extent of effort when performing audit procedures to evaluate whether the vendor funds were completely and accurately recorded in accordance with the vendor agreements.
How the Critical Audit Matter Was Addressed in the Audit
Our audit procedures related to whether the vendor funds were completely and accurately recorded in accordance with the terms of the vendor agreements included the following, among others:
We tested the design and operating effectiveness of controls over vendor funds, including management’s controls over the identification of vendor agreements as well as the accrual and recording of vendor funds as a reduction to the cost of inventory as they are earned, and as a reduction to cost of sales as the related inventory is sold.
We selected a sample of vendor funds and recalculated the amount earned using the terms of the vendor agreement, including the amount recorded as a reduction to the cost of inventory when earned, and the amount recorded as a reduction to cost of sales as the related inventory is sold.
We selected a sample of vendor funds and sent confirmations to test the completeness of programs as well as the accuracy of amounts earned and terms of the agreement directly with the vendor.
/s/Deloitte & Touche LLP
Charlotte, North Carolina
March 24, 2025
We have served as the Company's auditor since 1962.
REPORT OF INDEPENDENT REGISTERED PUBLIC ACCOUNTING FIRM
To the shareholders and the Board of Directors of Lowe’s Companies, Inc.
Opinion on Internal Control over Financial Reporting
We have audited the internal control over financial reporting of Lowe’s Companies, Inc. and subsidiaries (the “Company”) as of January 31, 2025, based on criteria established in Internal Control– Integrated Framework (2013) issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (COSO). In our opinion, the Company maintained, in all material respects, effective internal control over financial reporting as of January 31, 2025, based on criteria established in Internal Control– Integrated Framework (2013)issued by COSO.
We have also audited, in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States) (PCAOB), the consolidated financial statements as of and for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2025, of the Company and our report dated March 24, 2025, expressed an unqualified opinion on those financial statements.
Basis for Opinion
The Company’s management is responsible for maintaining effective internal control over financial reporting and for its assessment of the effectiveness of internal control over financial reporting, included in the accompanying Management’s Report on Internal Control over Financial Reporting. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on the Company’s internal control over financial reporting based on our audit. We are a public accounting firm registered with the PCAOB and are required to be independent with respect to the Company in accordance with the U.S. federal securities laws and the applicable rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the PCAOB.
We conducted our audit in accordance with the standards of the PCAOB. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether effective internal control over financial reporting was maintained in all material respects. Our audit included obtaining an understanding of internal control over financial reporting, assessing the risk that a material weakness exists, testing and evaluating the design and operating effectiveness of internal control based on the assessed risk, and performing such other procedures as we considered necessary in the circumstances. We believe that our audit provides a reasonable basis for our opinion.
Definition and Limitations of Internal Control over Financial Reporting
A company’s internal control over financial reporting is a process designed to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of financial statements for external purposes in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. A company’s internal control over financial reporting includes those policies and procedures that (1) pertain to the maintenance of records that, in reasonable detail, accurately and fairly reflect the transactions and dispositions of the assets of the company; (2) provide reasonable assurance that transactions are recorded as necessary to permit preparation of financial statements in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles, and that receipts and expenditures of the company are being made only in accordance with authorizations of management and directors of the company; and (3) provide reasonable assurance regarding prevention or timely detection of unauthorized acquisition, use, or disposition of the company’s assets that could have a material effect on the financial statements.
Because of its inherent limitations, internal control over financial reporting may not prevent or detect misstatements. Also, projections of any evaluation of effectiveness to future periods are subject to the risk that controls may become inadequate because of changes in conditions, or that the degree of compliance with the policies or procedures may deteriorate.
/s/ Deloitte & Touche LLP
Charlotte, North Carolina
March 24, 2025
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