Blair William & Co. IL Raises Holdings in The Kroger Co. (NYSE:KR)

Blair William & Co. IL increased its position in The Kroger Co. (NYSE:KR) by 0.6% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 160,512 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 966 shares during the period. Blair William & Co. IL’s holdings in Kroger were worth $8,014,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. increased its position in Kroger by 53.3% in the 1st quarter. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. now owns 9,241 shares of the company’s stock valued at $528,000 after acquiring an additional 3,212 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. grew its stake in shares of Kroger by 23.3% in the 4th quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 1,380,764 shares of the company’s stock valued at $63,115,000 after purchasing an additional 261,368 shares during the last quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of Kroger by 18.8% in the first quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 820,623 shares of the company’s stock valued at $46,882,000 after purchasing an additional 129,873 shares during the period. OLD National Bancorp IN raised its stake in shares of Kroger by 82.2% during the second quarter. OLD National Bancorp IN now owns 132,857 shares of the company’s stock worth $6,634,000 after purchasing an additional 59,949 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Unigestion Holding SA acquired a new stake in shares of Kroger during the fourth quarter worth $671,000. 80.93% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have recently commented on the stock. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of Kroger from $57.00 to $58.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, September 13th. Telsey Advisory Group reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $62.00 price objective on shares of Kroger in a report on Monday, September 9th. StockNews.com cut Kroger from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, September 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on Kroger from $58.00 to $59.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, September 13th. Finally, Evercore ISI upped their price objective on Kroger from $62.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, September 13th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $59.09.

Kroger Stock Performance

Kroger stock opened at $55.39 on Friday. The Kroger Co. has a fifty-two week low of $42.10 and a fifty-two week high of $58.34. The company has a market capitalization of $39.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.90, a PEG ratio of 0.80 and a beta of 0.47. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $53.66 and a two-hundred day moving average of $53.84. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.97, a quick ratio of 0.45 and a current ratio of 0.86.

Kroger (NYSE:KR) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, September 12th. The company reported $0.93 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.91 by $0.02. Kroger had a return on equity of 29.89% and a net margin of 1.43%. The firm had revenue of $33.91 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $34.09 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.96 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up .2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts anticipate that The Kroger Co. will post 4.45 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Kroger Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Sunday, September 1st. Investors of record on Thursday, August 15th were given a dividend of $0.32 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, August 15th. This is an increase from Kroger’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.29. This represents a $1.28 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.31%. Kroger’s dividend payout ratio is 43.69%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Kroger news, VP Brian W. Nichols sold 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $54.53, for a total transaction of $109,060.00. Following the transaction, the vice president now owns 18,063 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $984,975.39. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other Kroger news, 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 completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 47,593 shares in the company, valued at $2,644,743.01. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, VP Brian W. Nichols sold 2,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, July 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $54.53, for a total transaction of $109,060.00. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 18,063 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $984,975.39. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.40% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.