Swiss National Bank Cuts Stake in The Kroger Co. $KR

Swiss National Bank lowered its stake in shares of The Kroger Co. (NYSE:KR) by 2.0% during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 1,900,600 shares of the company’s stock after selling 38,300 shares during the quarter. Swiss National Bank’s holdings in Kroger were worth $136,330,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of KR. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its stake 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 acquiring an additional 186,302 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its holdings 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 valued at $433,065,000 after purchasing an additional 2,945,848 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Kroger by 0.6% during the first quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 5,067,209 shares of the company’s stock valued at $342,999,000 after purchasing an additional 31,477 shares in the last quarter. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. grew its position in shares of Kroger by 101.7% during 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 purchasing an additional 2,059,574 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in shares of Kroger in the first quarter worth about $178,385,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.93% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

KR has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Roth Capital upgraded Kroger from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $75.00 price target for the company in a report on Wednesday, September 17th. Argus set a $85.00 target price on Kroger in a research report on Thursday, September 18th. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Kroger from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Sunday, October 26th. Evercore ISI reduced their price target on shares of Kroger from $82.00 to $80.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, October 14th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Kroger in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $74.50.

Kroger Stock Performance

Shares of Kroger stock opened at $66.05 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.54, a current ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.85. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $66.43 and its two-hundred day moving average is $68.48. The Kroger Co. has a 52 week low of $57.69 and a 52 week high of $74.90. The company has a market capitalization of $43.77 billion, a PE ratio of 16.76, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.92 and a beta of 0.55.

Kroger (NYSE:KR) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, September 11th. The company reported $1.04 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.00 by $0.04. Kroger had a net margin of 1.86% and a return on equity of 32.62%. The company had revenue of $33.94 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $34.08 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.93 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up .1% compared to the same quarter last year. Kroger has set its FY 2025 guidance at 4.700-4.800 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that The Kroger Co. will post 4.44 earnings per share for the current year.

Kroger Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 1st. Investors of record on Friday, November 14th will be issued a $0.35 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 14th. This represents a $1.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.1%. Kroger’s payout ratio is presently 35.53%.

Kroger Company 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.