UPDATE: Jefferies Raises Target to $25 on Lowe's

Jefferies maintains its Hold rating on Lowe's

and raises its price target by $3 to $25 as it expects housing data to strengthen. Jefferies says, "While we still prefer Home Depot to Lowe's as it outperforms on the sales and EBIT line, both of these names are benefiting from the broader housing trade, which reflects another rebound in data recently. Vendor data is a little mixed, but our checks suggest Q4 should be at least in line with consensus." LOW closed at $27.31 a share on Thursday.