Telsey Advisory Group Issues Positive Forecast for Kroger (NYSE:KR) Stock Price

Kroger (NYSE:KR) had its price objective raised by Telsey Advisory Group from $62.00 to $65.00 in a research report released on Wednesday, Marketbeat Ratings reports. The firm currently has an outperform rating on the stock.

Other equities research analysts also recently issued research reports about the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of Kroger from $58.00 to $59.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, September 13th. Melius Research assumed coverage on shares of Kroger in a research report on Monday, September 23rd. They set a “hold” rating and a $55.00 price objective for the company. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of Kroger from $57.00 to $58.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, September 13th. Guggenheim increased their price objective on shares of Kroger from $61.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, November 25th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of Kroger from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, September 16th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $60.55.

Kroger Trading Up 1.0 %

Shares of NYSE KR opened at $61.08 on Wednesday. Kroger has a fifty-two week low of $42.97 and a fifty-two week high of $61.18. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.96, a current ratio of 0.87 and a quick ratio of 0.46. The firm has a market capitalization of $44.19 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.99, a P/E/G ratio of 0.94 and a beta of 0.48. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $57.42 and its 200 day simple moving average is $54.41.

Kroger (NYSE:KR) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, September 12th. The company reported $0.93 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.91 by $0.02. Kroger had a net margin of 1.86% and a return on equity of 28.54%. The firm had revenue of $33.91 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $34.09 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.96 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up .2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts predict that Kroger will post 4.46 EPS for the current year.

Kroger Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, December 1st. Investors of record on Friday, November 15th will be issued a dividend of $0.32 per share. This represents a $1.28 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.10%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 15th. Kroger’s payout ratio is 33.51%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Kroger news, VP Carin L. Fike sold 3,010 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $55.57, for a total value of $167,265.70. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 47,593 shares in the company, valued at $2,644,743.01. This trade represents a 5.95 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, VP Brian W. Nichols sold 6,922 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, October 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $55.80, for a total transaction of $386,247.60. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 14,063 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $784,715.40. This represents a 32.99 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 12,932 shares of company stock worth $721,243. 1.40% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Kroger

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its stake in shares of Kroger by 11,570.7% during the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 2,729,788 shares of the company’s stock worth $156,417,000 after buying an additional 2,706,398 shares during the last quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. lifted its stake in shares of Kroger by 96.6% during the 2nd quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. now owns 5,381,311 shares of the company’s stock worth $268,689,000 after buying an additional 2,643,811 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its stake in shares of Kroger by 6.8% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 33,057,629 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,894,202,000 after buying an additional 2,110,681 shares during the last quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec lifted its stake in shares of Kroger by 110.5% during the 3rd quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec now owns 3,574,651 shares of the company’s stock worth $204,828,000 after buying an additional 1,876,397 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Marshall Wace LLP lifted its stake in shares of Kroger by 698.8% during the 2nd quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 1,878,479 shares of the company’s stock worth $93,792,000 after buying an additional 1,643,307 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.93% of the company’s stock.

About Kroger

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.