Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership Invests $53.27 Million in The Kroger Co. $KR

Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership bought a new position in shares of The Kroger Co. (NYSE:KR) in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm bought 742,602 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $53,267,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership owned 0.11% of Kroger at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of KR. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Kroger during the second quarter valued at $518,267,000. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its position in shares of Kroger by 85.3% during the 1st quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 6,397,771 shares of the company’s stock worth $433,065,000 after purchasing an additional 2,945,848 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC bought a new position in Kroger during the 1st quarter valued at about $178,385,000. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. boosted its position in Kroger by 101.7% in the first quarter. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. now owns 4,084,584 shares of the company’s stock valued at $276,485,000 after buying an additional 2,059,574 shares in the last quarter. Finally, VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al bought a new stake in Kroger during the second quarter worth about $120,965,000. 80.93% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

KR has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $70.00 target price on shares of Kroger in a research note on Thursday. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Kroger in a report on Monday. Wall Street Zen lowered Kroger from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Sunday, October 26th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on Kroger from $75.00 to $73.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, November 26th. Finally, Guggenheim reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $78.00 price target on shares of Kroger in a report on Wednesday, November 19th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $74.22.

Kroger Price Performance

KR opened at $63.15 on Friday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $66.48 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $68.25. The firm has a market capitalization of $41.85 billion, a PE ratio of 16.03, a P/E/G ratio of 1.93 and a beta of 0.58. The Kroger Co. has a 52 week low of $57.69 and a 52 week high of $74.90. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.85, a quick ratio of 0.54 and a current ratio of 0.95.

Kroger (NYSE:KR) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 4th. The company reported $1.05 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.03 by $0.02. Kroger had a return on equity of 32.62% and a net margin of 1.86%.The company had revenue of $33.86 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $34.27 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.98 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up .7% on a year-over-year basis. Kroger has set its FY 2025 guidance at 4.750-4.800 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that The Kroger Co. will post 4.44 earnings per share for the current year.

Kroger Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 14th were given a dividend of $0.35 per share. This represents a $1.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.2%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 14th. Kroger’s payout ratio is presently 35.53%.

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.