The Kroger Co. (NYSE:KR) finished Thursday with a subtraction of -$0.44 to close at $46.49, a downside of -0.94 percent. An average of 3,981,880 shares of common stock have been traded in the last five days. There was a fall of -$0.25 in the past week, and it reached a new high 4 times over the past 12 months. The last 20 days have seen an average of 4,070,960 shares traded, while the 50-day average volume stands at 4,615,458.
KR stock has decreased by -4.56% in the last month. The company shares reached their 1-month lowest point of $46.40 on 08/24/23. With the stock rallying to its 52-week high on 05/22/23, shares of the company touched a low of $41.81 and a high of $52.00 in 52 weeks. It has reached a new high 19 times so far this year and achieved 4.28% or $1.91 in price. In spite of this, the price is down -10.60% from the 52-week high.
Insider Transactions
KR stock investors should be aware that The Kroger Co. (KR) stock had its last reported insider trading activity 126 days ago on Apr 21. In this transaction, the insider spent $1,102,873. Group Vice President, Wheatley Christine S, disposed of 25,000 shares at a price of $47.49 on Apr 20. The insider now owns more than $1,187,225 worth of shares. Prior to that, Senior Vice President Kimball Kenneth C went on to Sale 29,024 shares at $48.39 each on Apr 06. An amount of $1,404,471 was transacted.
Valuation Metrics
The Kroger Co. (KR) has a trailing price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 13.36. The stock’s beta is 0.48. Other valuation ratios to consider include the trailing price-to-sales (P/S) ratio at 0.22, the price-to-book (PB) ratio at 3.06, and the price-to-cash flow ratio at 11.32.
The company has a payout ratio of 28.10%. The company’s most recent quarterly dividend payment was $0.26 a share, without any change from last year. Its latest increase dividend $0.05 reported on Thursday June 23 2022.
Financial Health
The quick ratio of The Kroger Co. for the three months ended April 29 was 0.40, and the current ratio was 0.80, indicating that the company is not able to meet its debt obligations. Further, the company has a long term debt to equity ratio of 1.11 and a total debt to equity ratio of 1.23 for the quarter ending April 29. The Kroger Co.’s EBITDA margin for the year ending April 29 is 5.47%, while its operating margin for the same period stands at 2.70%. Its gross profit as reported stood at $31.78 billion compared to revenue of $148.26 billion.
For investors, determining the potential profitability of the investment also depends on the performance of the company’s management. In the past 12 months, The Kroger Co.’s return on assets was 5.10%.
Earnings Surprise
In the quarter under review, the net income was up than the previous quarter. The company posted a net income of $962.0 million in the quarter, while revenues were grew 30.98%. The analyst consensus anticipated The Kroger Co.’s latest quarter earnings to come in at $1.46 per share, but it turned out to be $1.51, a 3.40% surprise. For the quarter, EBITDA amounted to $2.62 billion. Shareholders own equity worth $717.75 million.
Technical Picture
From a technical analysis perspective, let’s take a brief look at The Kroger Co. (KR) price momentum. RSI 9-day as of the close on 24 August was 30.79%, suggesting the stock is Neutral, with historical volatility in this time frame at 14.50%.
As of today, KR’s price is $47.08 -0.53% or -$0.25 from its 5-day moving average. KR is currently trading -3.35% lower than its 20-day SMA and -5.83% lower than its 100-day SMA. However, the stock’s current price level is -0.79% below the SMA50 and +0.19% above the SMA200.
The stochastic %K and %D were 8.90% and 15.42%, respectively, and the average true range (ATR) was 0.81. With the 14-day stochastic at 2.38% and the average true range at 0.81, the RSI (14) stands at 37.27%. The stock has reached -0.49 on the 9-day MACD Oscillator while the 14-day reading was at -1.16.
Analyst Ratings
Northcoast upgraded The Kroger Co. (NYSE: KR) to a a Buy rating in its most recent analyst report. Previously, the stock was rated as a Neutral. The consensus rating for The Kroger Co. (KR) among analysts is Overweight. According to current brokerage recommendations, 1 brokerage firm advise that investors sell KR, while 10 suggest investors hold. There are 0 analysts who rate the stock as underweight. The stock is rated overweight by 2 analysts, while 9 others rate it as a “buy”.
What is KR’s price target for the next 12 months?
Analysts predict a range of price targets between $42.00 and $65.00, with a median target of $52.00. Taking a look at these predictions, the average price target given by analysts for The Kroger Co. (KR) stock is $51.88.
