First Trust Advisors LP Has $78.83 Million Position in The Kroger Co. (NYSE:KR)

First Trust Advisors LP cut its holdings in The Kroger Co. (NYSE:KR) by 5.1% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,289,094 shares of the company’s stock after selling 68,852 shares during the quarter. First Trust Advisors LP owned about 0.18% of Kroger worth $78,828,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the business. Millstone Evans Group LLC acquired a new position in Kroger during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Whipplewood Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Kroger during the 4th quarter worth $26,000. TCTC Holdings LLC acquired a new position in Kroger during the 4th quarter worth $27,000. Lee Danner & Bass Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Kroger in the fourth quarter valued at about $32,000. Finally, Centricity Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Kroger in the fourth quarter worth about $32,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.93% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

KR has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Evercore ISI increased their target price on Kroger from $73.00 to $74.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. Melius Research downgraded shares of Kroger from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 1st. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a “buy” rating and issued a $70.00 price target on shares of Kroger in a research report on Tuesday, February 4th. Melius lowered shares of Kroger from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating and set a $58.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Tuesday, April 1st. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded Kroger from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $66.50.

Insider Transactions at Kroger

In other Kroger news, VP Brian W. Nichols sold 1,300 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $66.71, for a total value of $86,723.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 12,090 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $806,523.90. The trade was a 9.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, SVP Valerie L. Jabbar sold 31,271 shares of Kroger stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $69.08, for a total value of $2,160,200.68. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 82,684 shares in the company, valued at $5,711,810.72. This trade represents a 27.44 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 290,056 shares of company stock worth $19,637,066 in the last three months. Insiders own 1.40% of the company’s stock.

Kroger Stock Up 1.7 %

NYSE KR opened at $72.44 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.74, a current ratio of 1.54 and a quick ratio of 1.07. The firm has a market cap of $47.88 billion, a PE ratio of 19.16, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.85 and a beta of 0.60. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $66.28 and its 200 day simple moving average is $61.96. The Kroger Co. has a one year low of $49.04 and a one year high of $73.13.

Kroger (NYSE:KR) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 6th. The company reported $1.14 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.09 by $0.05. Kroger had a return on equity of 27.73% and a net margin of 1.85%. The business had revenue of $34.31 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $34.96 billion. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that The Kroger Co. will post 4.44 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Kroger Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, June 1st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 15th will be issued a dividend of $0.32 per share. This represents a $1.28 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.77%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 15th. Kroger’s dividend payout ratio is 34.88%.

Kroger 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.