Kroger’s (KR) Outperform Rating Reiterated at Telsey Advisory Group

Telsey Advisory Group reaffirmed their outperform rating on shares of Kroger (NYSE:KR) in a report issued on Monday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a $73.00 price target on the stock.

A number of other research firms have also recently issued reports on KR. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Kroger from $63.00 to $66.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of Kroger from $69.00 to $71.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, January 6th. StockNews.com cut shares of Kroger from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on shares of Kroger from $60.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, Bank of America upped their price objective on shares of Kroger from $70.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Kroger has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $67.19.

Kroger Stock Performance

Shares of Kroger stock opened at $62.52 on Monday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $62.16 and a 200-day moving average of $58.82. Kroger has a 1-year low of $49.04 and a 1-year high of $66.26. The company has a current ratio of 1.54, a quick ratio of 1.07 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.74. The company has a market cap of $45.24 billion, a PE ratio of 16.54, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.85 and a beta of 0.51.

Kroger (NYSE:KR) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 5th. The company reported $0.98 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.97 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $33.63 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $34.19 billion. Kroger had a net margin of 1.85% and a return on equity of 27.73%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.95 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Kroger will post 4.44 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Kroger announced that its board has approved a share buyback plan on Wednesday, December 11th that permits the company to repurchase $7.50 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the company to repurchase up to 16.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are generally an indication that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Kroger Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Saturday, March 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 14th were paid a $0.32 dividend. This represents a $1.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.05%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 14th. Kroger’s dividend payout ratio is currently 33.86%.

Insider Activity

In related news, SVP Stuart Aitken sold 132,627 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $63.18, for a total transaction of $8,379,373.86. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 217,523 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $13,743,103.14. This represents a 37.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CFO Todd A. Foley sold 16,932 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $61.44, for a total transaction of $1,040,302.08. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 53,782 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,304,366.08. This represents a 23.94 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 195,448 shares of company stock valued at $12,143,923. 1.40% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Millstone Evans Group LLC bought a new position in shares of Kroger in the fourth quarter valued at $25,000. Whipplewood Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Kroger in the fourth quarter valued at $26,000. TCTC Holdings LLC bought a new position in shares of Kroger in the fourth quarter valued at $27,000. Transce3nd LLC bought a new position in shares of Kroger in the fourth quarter valued at $28,000. Finally, Centricity Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Kroger in the fourth quarter valued at $32,000. 80.93% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Kroger Company Profile

The Kroger Co operates as a food and drug retailer in the United States. The company operates combination food and drug stores, multi-department stores, marketplace stores, and price impact warehouses. Its combination food and drug stores offer natural food and organic sections, pharmacies, general merchandise, pet centers, fresh seafood, and organic produce; and multi-department stores provide apparel, home fashion and furnishings, outdoor living, electronics, automotive products, and toys.