Before we begin, please note that the use of cameras or sound recording devices, except those used by Loews to provide a record of the proceedings, is prohibited. In addition, throughout this presentation, you will hear forward looking statements as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Management's expectations and opinions reflected in those statements are subject to risks, and the company can give no assurance that they will prove to be correct. Those risks are described in the company's annual meeting press release and in its filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Also, during this presentation, management will be using certain non GAAP financial measures.
You can find a reconciliation to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures and other information about them posted on Loews' Investor Relations website under Investor Packet. And now please welcome Loews' Brittnibloc.
Thank you. Good morning, and welcome to Loews 2015 Annual Shareholders Meeting. We're glad that you could join us. And on behalf of Loews, thank you for your continued support and commitment. To begin this meeting, I'm pleased to announce that your Board of Directors approved a 22% increase in Loews quarterly dividend from $0.23 per share to $0.28 per share and that dividend is scheduled to be paid on August 5 this year.
This increase is a result of the dedication and hard work of employees across the organization led by our executive management team who is here today in the front row. So thank you. Now I'd like to introduce your Board of Directors and nominees who are standing for election at today's meeting. Please hold your applause until all have been recognized. In the front row, Mr.
Raul Alvarez, Mr. Dave Bernauer, Ms. Sandra Labrawley, Ms. Lori Douglas, Mr. Rick Drowling, Mr.
Bob Johnson, Mr. Marshall Larson, Mr. Dick Lockridge, Mr. Jim Morgan and Mr. Eric Wiseman.
Thank you. In addition, I would like to recognize Doctor. Lynn Barry, who is retiring from Loews Board today and thank him for his 17 years of loyal and devoted service. Lynn, we will miss your passion, advice and counsel. Thank you for your many years of dedicated service, Lynn.
Also, I would like to recognize Ms. Dawn Hudson, who is the responsibility as the Chief Marketing Officer of the National Football League. Don, thank you for your 14 years of counsel, advice and dedicated service. We wish you much success with the NFL and we'll certainly miss your inspiration and your marketing and consumer insights. Thank you, Don.
Next, I'd like to introduce Mr. Bill Sullivan. Bill is here today from the accounting firm of Deloitte and Touche, and he'll be available after the meeting to answer any of your questions. Sid Rodriguez, Senior Director at Broadridge, has been appointed Inspector of Election for this meeting. Broadridge will assist with the tabulation of proxies and ballots.
As your proxy cards indicated, Mr. McCandless and Mr. Hull have been duly appointed as proxies for this meeting. At this time, I officially call the meeting to order. Mr.
McCandless, please report on the mailing of the notice for this meeting, the presence of a quorum and other business we will consider today. Bill?
Okay. Thank you, Robert. Notice of the annual meeting of shareholders of Loews Companies, Inc. Has been provided to shareholders of record as of March 27, 2015. The notice and accompanying proxy statement were mailed to shareholders beginning on April 13, 2015.
And as of today, there were 951,704,000 640 shares of common stock outstanding, of which 845,216,382 shares are represented today either in person or by proxy. Therefore, we have a quorum. As provided in the notice of annual meeting of shareholders, the purpose of this meeting is to address 4 items of business. 1st, elect 11 directors to a term of 1 year 2nd, approve on an advisory basis the compensation paid to the company's executive officers in fiscal 2014 3rd, ratify the appointment of Deloitte and Touche as the company's independent registered public accounting firm for fiscal 2015 and 4th, transact such other businesses may properly come before the annual meeting or any adjournment or postponement thereof. Thank you, Robert.
Thank you, Bill. I now declare the polls open for voting. The proxies have already delivered their ballots to the Inspector of Election. If you have already delivered a proxy, it is not necessary to vote in person unless you wish to change your vote. Anyone who desires to vote in person should raise their hand at this time so we can provide you with a ballot.
Okay. Since I don't see any hands raised, all votes have now been cast and I declare the polls to be closed. Sid, have you got the final tally? Okay. Thank you, Sid.
I've received the voting report from the voting inspector. And based upon the vote of shareholders, let me note that all nominees to the Board of Directors are elected. The company's executive compensation plan has been approved and Deloitte and Touche is ratified as the company's independent public accountant. Please note that the final voting results will be filed with the SEC within 4 business days. I will now provide insights into our progress and strong performance in 2014.
Our sales topped a company record $56,000,000,000 a 5.3% increase over 2013, and we delivered comparable sales growth of 4.3%. We leveraged our sales growth to increase net earnings by 18% and diluted earnings per share by 27% to a company record $2.71 Our stock price finished the fiscal year at $67.76 a 46% increase over the final day of fiscal 2013, and the company paid out 8 $22,000,000 in dividends for the year. We also became America's number 1 retailer in appliances, a goal we've been pursuing for many years, and we were named 1 of the 10 happiest retailers to work for by careerbliss.com. Advertising Age Magazine put us on their A list of the country's most creative and successful companies. While north of the border, Lowe's Canada delivered double digit comps in local currency all 4 quarters in 2014, resulting in 7 consecutive quarters of double digit comp performance.
The strategic decisions and investments we made at the start of the decade continue to pay off, enabling shareholders to enjoy benefits like today's dividend increase and significant growth in our stock price over the past year. Solid financial performance also enables us to maintain a rapid pace of change as we create the omnichannel environment consumers expect today and deliver the customer experiences that set us apart from the competition. The value improvement line review process has become part of our everyday business. And in 2014, we were able to drive additional inventory productivity as a natural part of that process. With elements of product differentiation now executed in all stores, we continue to see excitement from customers around our better product display techniques, especially the end caps that allow us to showcase innovative products, significant values and private and national brands.
By refining our investment in incremental store labor, we're better positioned to serve customers in our stores. All of these wins made 2014 a successful year for Lowe's and a source of momentum for 2015 and beyond. In 2015, economic forecasts suggest moderately stronger growth in the home improvement industry, with job and income growth steadily strengthening and credit usage continuing to rise. We expect household financial conditions to continue to improve, setting the stage for higher discretionary spending among consumers. And we're prepared to capitalize on this opportunity and to continue to grow in 2015.
This positive outlook allows us to focus on 2 points of emphasis in 2015. First, we'll pursue sales growth by delivering better customer experiences and improving our offering for the Pro customer, while continuing to develop our omnichannel capabilities to ensure we're meeting the needs of customers whenever and wherever they choose to engage with us. And second, we'll continue improving our productivity and profitability with a dedicated focus in the areas of store payroll, marketing and indirect spend. With a focus on these initiatives in 2015, we're confident that we will increase our sales and operating margin, resulting in earnings per share of approximately $3.29 an increase of 21% over 2014. But enduring growth beyond the here and now is a function of having a purpose that goes beyond just making money.
Having a purpose helps companies drive better performance because it communicates that a company stands for something, something more than just the bottom line, something that fulfills a greater need in society. Having a purpose helps companies deliver better results because it empowers employees to focus on the one thing that matters most. Having a purpose helps companies strengthen employee engagement because it helps employees find meaning in their work and fulfills their desire to be part of something bigger. Not only do companies with a clear purpose consistently outperform everyone else, they create enduring growth because the reason they exist goes beyond just profit. Enduring growth comes from uncovering, sharing and aligning every facet of a business around a shared noble purpose.
It's a process that we've undertaken as well. And what we uncovered and what we're working to align around is that our purpose is to help people love where they live. Being a purpose driven company means living with our heart instead of our wallet. Like the employees at our store in Long Island, New York, who stayed after work help a disabled veteran whose wheelchair had fallen apart while shopping in the store. Being a purpose driven company means doing the right thing first for customers and communities, like our partnership with Habitat for Humanity, where for more than a decade, we've been working to bring affordable housing solutions and hope to families across the country.
Being a purpose driven company means that day to day, our focus needs to be on the customer first. Like helping a family with 10 children remodel their entire kitchen and laundry room without overly disrupting the functionality of those critical areas. If we continue to keep our purpose as our priority and put the customer and community first, then sales, profits and return on investment will reach levels that we could never achieve otherwise. Becoming a purpose driven company ensures that all the hard work that we've put into transformational change will last well into the future, because being purpose driven allows us to build deep lasting relationships with customers. And if we're true to our purpose, then those deep, lasting relationships will deliver results today, tomorrow and for years to come.
That concludes the business update portion of our meeting today. I will now open the meeting to shareholders with questions. If anyone has a question, if you'll please step to the microphone at the center of the room, state your name and organization for which you are a proxy if you're here on their behalf. I'd like to ask that you limit your question to no more than 2 minutes and hold follow-up questions in order that others can share and have an opportunity to share and be heard their questions will be heard. The floor is now open for questions.
Hi, how are you? Doing well. Chuck Johnson, I just wanted to know in the future, what type of growth are we going to have because we're going to open up stores about 1% a year. Right. Comps are going to be about 3% in the next several years.
But after that, if we don't open new stores, where would the growth come from?
Great question, Chuck. As you have outlined in the presentation, what we're seeing from customers today is really the expectation that we've got to be there on an omnichannel basis whenever and wherever they choose to engage with us. So we've got over 1800 stores obviously throughout North America today. And our focal point over the next few years is continuing to fill in those key areas where we have gaps in store coverage because the store is still a very focal and integral part of our strategy. But to layer on that the rest of the omnichannel capabilities that will continue to meet the needs of our customers and be able to better leverage the investment that we've made far.
So that's continued investment in dotcom, continued investment in what we're calling in home selling through our PSI, our product service project service interior, project service exteriors, specialists that are out there and also through our contact centers. By doing that, that's what's going to fuel a lot of our growth. And actually, I think for the next few years, our comp will probably be a little higher than 3%. And as we're doing that, you're also going to see us reinvesting in existing stores to drive additional growth through there with new sets, new ways to go to market. And we'll also be looking at continuing to store out in Canada and in Mexico where we've got nice businesses started there.
And we'll continue to determine how fast we can grow from a new store footage square new store square footage standpoint. But the overall majority of our growth is going to be moving to that omnichannel over the next 3 to 5 years and really leveraging those assets that we've put in place over the next few years, which will drive, I think, great return for shareholders.
So instead of new stores, the Internet's going to be a big driver?
The Internet but it's the omni channel. It's the way it's connected because today the store is still, as I said, a very integral part because over 60% of what we sell today is picked up in our stores. So it's just a convenient way for the customer to interact with our stores in many cases today and that's what customers are telling us that they want us to go to in the future. All right.
Thank you.
Great. Thanks, Chuck. Great question. Other questions? Okay.
Well, certainly, thank you for your questions and comments. I would like to express my appreciation for your continued support and commitment and also for attending this year's meeting. I want to also thank our shareholders who submitted their proxies, but were unable to attend the meeting today. Hope you join us next year and this meeting is now adjourned. Thank you.