Lowe's Cos Inc , the second-largest home improvement retailer, posted a lower quarterly profit on Monday as consumers remained wary about buying home-related goods in the recession.

Net profit fell to $476 million, or 32 cents a share, in the first quarter ended on May 1 from $607 million or 41 cents a share, a year earlier.

Sales fell 1.5 percent to $11.83 billion.

(Reporting by Aarthi Sivaraman; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn)