California Public Employees Retirement System Trims Stock Holdings in The Kroger Co. $KR

California Public Employees Retirement System reduced its stake in shares of The Kroger Co. (NYSE:KR) by 18.1% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,391,752 shares of the company’s stock after selling 527,033 shares during the period. California Public Employees Retirement System owned 0.36% of Kroger worth $171,560,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its holdings in Kroger by 1.3% during the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 14,299,898 shares of the company’s stock valued at $967,863,000 after purchasing an additional 186,302 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Kroger during the 2nd quarter valued at $518,267,000. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its holdings in Kroger by 85.3% during the first quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 6,397,771 shares of the company’s stock valued at $433,065,000 after acquiring an additional 2,945,848 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. grew its position in shares of Kroger by 7.9% during the second quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 4,126,866 shares of the company’s stock worth $296,028,000 after purchasing an additional 300,784 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Alyeska Investment Group L.P. raised its stake in Kroger by 101.7% during the 1st quarter. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. now owns 4,084,584 shares of the company’s stock valued at $276,485,000 after purchasing an additional 2,059,574 shares during the period. 80.93% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

KR has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on Kroger from $73.00 to $71.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday. Argus set a $85.00 target price on shares of Kroger in a research report on Thursday, September 18th. UBS Group reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $70.00 target price (down from $74.00) on shares of Kroger in a research note on Friday. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Kroger in a research note on Monday, December 1st. Finally, Roth Mkm raised shares of Kroger from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $66.00 to $75.00 in a report on Wednesday, September 17th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $73.61.

Kroger Price Performance

Kroger stock opened at $62.76 on Monday. The Kroger Co. has a 52-week low of $57.69 and a 52-week high of $74.90. The company has a quick ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.28. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $66.43 and its 200 day moving average is $68.20. The company has a market cap of $41.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 58.11, a PEG ratio of 1.83 and a beta of 0.58.

Kroger (NYSE:KR) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, December 4th. The company reported $1.05 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.03 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $33.86 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $34.27 billion. Kroger had a net margin of 0.54% and a return on equity of 38.06%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up .7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.98 EPS. Kroger has set its FY 2025 guidance at 4.750-4.800 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that The Kroger Co. will post 4.44 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Kroger Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 14th were given a dividend of $0.35 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 14th. This represents a $1.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.2%. Kroger’s dividend payout ratio is 129.63%.

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.