The Lowe’s Companies, the nation’s second-biggest home improvement retailer after Home Depot, said Friday that its fourth-quarter profit dropped 60 percent, and it forecast 2009 earnings short of Wall Street’s expectations.

The latest results narrowly missed analysts’ estimates as consumers spent less on items for their houses amid a deepening recession.

Its shares fell 6.6 percent, to $15.86.

Earnings declined to $162 million, or 11 cents a share, in the three months ended in Jan. 30, from $408 million, or 28 cents a share, in the period a year ago.

The retailer said revenue fell 4 percent, to $9.98 billion from $10.4 billion a year ago.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expected a profit of 12 cents a share on revenue of almost $10.1 billion. Those estimates typically exclude one-time items.