Roth Mkm Increases Kroger (NYSE:KR) Price Target to $56.00

Kroger (NYSE:KR) had its price target increased by research analysts at Roth Mkm from $52.00 to $56.00 in a research report issued on Friday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a “neutral” rating on the stock. Roth Mkm’s price objective suggests a potential downside of 6.79% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other brokerages also recently weighed in on KR. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of Kroger from $65.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday. Evercore ISI raised their target price on Kroger from $62.00 to $63.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, September 13th. StockNews.com cut Kroger from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, September 16th. Guggenheim raised their price objective on Kroger from $61.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, November 25th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group raised Kroger from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $54.00 to $73.00 in a research note on Tuesday. Five 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 stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Kroger presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $63.33.

Kroger Price Performance

Shares of NYSE KR traded down $0.63 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $60.08. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,527,541 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,642,204. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.96, a quick ratio of 0.46 and a current ratio of 0.87. The company has a market cap of $43.47 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.71, a P/E/G ratio of 0.93 and a beta of 0.48. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $57.75 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $54.57. Kroger has a fifty-two week low of $43.51 and a fifty-two week high of $61.37.

Kroger (NYSE:KR) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 5th. The company reported $0.98 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.97 by $0.01. Kroger had a return on equity of 28.54% and a net margin of 1.86%. The firm had revenue of $33.63 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $34.19 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.95 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 1.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts forecast that Kroger will post 4.46 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, SVP Valerie L. Jabbar sold 3,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $55.91, for a total value of $167,730.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 74,084 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,142,036.44. This trade represents a 3.89 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, VP Carin L. Fike sold 3,010 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $55.57, for a total transaction of $167,265.70. Following the sale, the vice president now owns 47,593 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,644,743.01. This trade represents a 5.95 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 12,932 shares of company stock valued at $721,243 over the last quarter. 1.40% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its holdings in Kroger by 11,570.7% during the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 2,729,788 shares of the company’s stock valued at $156,417,000 after buying an additional 2,706,398 shares in the last quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. lifted its holdings 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 valued at $268,689,000 after purchasing an additional 2,643,811 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its holdings in shares of Kroger by 6.8% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 33,057,629 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,894,202,000 after acquiring an additional 2,110,681 shares in the last quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec grew its stake in 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 valued at $204,828,000 after purchasing an additional 1,876,397 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Marshall Wace LLP raised 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 valued at $93,792,000 after buying an additional 1,643,307 shares during the last quarter. 80.93% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.