Kroger Co. (NYSE:KR) finished Thursday with an addition of $0.61 to close at $45.09, an upside of 1.37 percent. An average of 3,565,020 shares of common stock have been traded in the last five days. There was a fall of -$0.62 in the past week, and it reached a new high 7 times over the past 12 months. The last 20 days have seen an average of 5,979,875 shares traded, while the 50-day average volume stands at 4,730,750.
KR stock has decreased by -3.01% in the last month. The company shares reached their 1-month lowest point of $44.22 on 09/08/23. 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 $50.41 in 52 weeks. It has reached a new high 19 times so far this year and achieved 1.14% or $0.51 in price. In spite of this, the price is down -10.55% from the 52-week high.
Insider Transactions
KR stock investors should be aware that Kroger Co. (KR) stock had its last reported insider trading activity 7 days ago on Sep 22. In this transaction, the insider spent $218,417. Vice President and Treasurer, FIKE CARIN L, disposed of 6,000 shares at a price of $46.50 on Sep 15. The insider now owns more than $279,004 worth of shares. Prior to that, Senior Vice President Massa Timothy A went on to Sale 23,000 shares at $45.46 each on Sep 12. An amount of $1,045,511 was transacted.
Valuation Metrics
Kroger Co. (KR) has a trailing price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 20.20. 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 9.21.
The company has a payout ratio of 32.36%. The company’s most recent quarterly dividend payment was $0.29 a share, representing a up of 11.54% from $0.26 last year.
Financial Health
The quick ratio of Kroger Co. for the three months ended July 30 was 0.36, and the current ratio was 0.78, indicating that the company is not able to meet its debt obligations. Further, the company has a long term debt to equity ratio of 1.74 and a total debt to equity ratio of 1.87 for the quarter ending July 30. 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, Kroger Co.’s return on assets was 3.27%.
Earnings Surprise
In the quarter under review, the net income was down than the previous quarter. The company posted a net income of -$180.0 million in the quarter, while revenues were grew 506.11%. The analyst consensus anticipated Kroger Co.’s latest quarter earnings to come in at $0.91 per share, but it turned out to be $0.96, a 5.50% surprise. For the quarter, EBITDA amounted to $380.0 million. Shareholders own equity worth $719.32 million.
Technical Picture
From a technical analysis perspective, let’s take a brief look at Kroger Co. (KR) price momentum. RSI 9-day as of the close on 28 September was 41.33%, suggesting the stock is Neutral, with historical volatility in this time frame at 13.87%.
As of today, KR’s price is $45.22 -1.36% or -$0.62 from its 5-day moving average. KR is currently trading -3.07% lower than its 20-day SMA and -8.41% lower than its 100-day SMA. However, the stock’s current price level is -4.02% below the SMA50 and -2.97% below the SMA200.
The stochastic %K and %D were 20.53% and 24.92%, respectively, and the average true range (ATR) was 0.81. With the 14-day stochastic at 31.98% and the average true range at 0.83, the RSI (14) stands at 41.76%. The stock has reached -0.72 on the 9-day MACD Oscillator while the 14-day reading was at -0.73.
Analyst Ratings
HSBC Securities launched coverage on Kroger Co. (NYSE: KR) in its analyst report released on September 22, 2023. The firm assigned the stock a Hold rating. The consensus rating for Kroger Co. (KR) among analysts is Overweight. According to current brokerage recommendations, 2 brokerage firms advise that investors sell KR, while 12 suggest investors hold. There are 0 analysts who rate the stock as underweight. The stock is rated overweight by 2 analysts, while 8 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 Kroger Co. (KR) stock is $51.66.
