The Kroger Co. (NYSE:KR) Shares Acquired by Macquarie Group Ltd.

Macquarie Group Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of The Kroger Co. (NYSE:KR – Get Rating) by 1.8% in the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 78,481 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 1,370 shares during the quarter. Macquarie Group Ltd.’s holdings in Kroger were worth $3,434,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in KR. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership bought a new stake in shares of Kroger during the first quarter valued at about $71,410,000. FMR LLC raised its stake in shares of Kroger by 9.5% during the second quarter. FMR LLC now owns 11,522,183 shares of the company’s stock valued at $545,344,000 after purchasing an additional 1,002,044 shares in the last quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board grew its holdings in Kroger by 403.7% during the third quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 1,180,854 shares of the company’s stock worth $51,662,000 after acquiring an additional 946,412 shares during the period. Eaton Vance Management grew its holdings in Kroger by 175.8% during the first quarter. Eaton Vance Management now owns 1,306,295 shares of the company’s stock worth $74,943,000 after acquiring an additional 832,615 shares during the period. Finally, River Road Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in Kroger by 277.4% during the third quarter. River Road Asset Management LLC now owns 1,081,071 shares of the company’s stock worth $47,297,000 after acquiring an additional 794,609 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 78.03% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Kroger

In related news, SVP Valerie L. Jabbar sold 62,414 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $46.47, for a total transaction of $2,900,378.58. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 63,079 shares in the company, valued at $2,931,281.13. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In related news, SVP Valerie L. Jabbar sold 62,414 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $46.47, for a total transaction of $2,900,378.58. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 63,079 shares in the company, valued at $2,931,281.13. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, SVP Mary Ellen Adcock sold 43,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $44.27, for a total value of $1,903,610.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 135,611 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,003,498.97. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 108,414 shares of company stock valued at $4,941,689. 1.35% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on KR. StockNews.com cut Kroger from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, March 3rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded Kroger from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $50.00 to $54.00 in a report on Friday, March 3rd. Roth Capital reiterated a “neutral” rating on shares of Kroger in a report on Friday, March 3rd. Stephens lowered their price objective on Kroger from $57.00 to $52.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on Kroger from $47.00 to $42.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 4th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Kroger has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $53.88.

Kroger Trading Up 1.2 %

Shares of KR opened at $47.45 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.30, a current ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26. The Kroger Co. has a 12-month low of $41.81 and a 12-month high of $62.78. The firm has a market capitalization of $33.97 billion, a PE ratio of 15.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.71 and a beta of 0.47. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $44.82 and its 200-day simple moving average is $45.96.

Kroger (NYSE:KR – Get Rating) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 2nd. The company reported $0.99 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.90 by $0.09. Kroger had a return on equity of 31.84% and a net margin of 1.51%. The business had revenue of $34.82 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $34.89 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.91 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts predict that The Kroger Co. will post 4.53 earnings per share for the current year.

Kroger Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 1st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, February 15th were paid a $0.26 dividend. This represents a $1.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.19%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 14th. Kroger’s payout ratio is 33.88%.

About Kroger

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The Kroger Co engages in the operation of supermarkets and multi-department stores. Its brands include Big K, Check This Out?, Heritage Farm, Simple Truth, and Simple Truth Organic. The company was founded by Barney Kroger in 1883 and is headquartered in Cincinnati, OH.