Advyzon Investment Management LLC Acquires Shares of 5,994 The Kroger Co. (NYSE:KR)

Advyzon Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of The Kroger Co. (NYSE:KR) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 5,994 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $367,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Adirondack Trust Co. raised its position in shares of Kroger by 1,628.1% during the 4th quarter. Adirondack Trust Co. now owns 553 shares of the company’s stock worth $34,000 after purchasing an additional 521 shares during the period. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Kroger during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $34,000. Crews Bank & Trust acquired a new stake in shares of Kroger during the 4th quarter worth approximately $39,000. McClarren Financial Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Kroger during the 4th quarter worth approximately $39,000. Finally, Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Kroger during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $40,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.93% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on KR. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $70.00 price target on shares of Kroger in a research report on Tuesday, February 4th. StockNews.com cut Kroger from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Evercore ISI raised their target price on Kroger from $70.00 to $75.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Citigroup restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $61.00 target price on shares of Kroger in a research report on Friday, January 24th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upgraded Kroger from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the company from $54.00 to $73.00 in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $67.19.

Kroger Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE KR opened at $65.41 on Thursday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $61.60 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $58.03. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.74, a quick ratio of 1.07 and a current ratio of 1.54. The firm has a market cap of $47.33 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.31, a PEG ratio of 2.88 and a beta of 0.47. The Kroger Co. has a 1 year low of $46.96 and a 1 year high of $66.18.

Kroger (NYSE:KR) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 5th. The company reported $0.98 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.97 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $33.63 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $34.19 billion. Kroger had a return on equity of 27.73% and a net margin of 1.85%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.95 EPS. Research analysts forecast that The Kroger Co. will post 4.44 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Kroger Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, March 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 14th will be paid a dividend of $0.32 per share. This represents a $1.28 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.96%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 14th. Kroger’s dividend payout ratio is presently 33.86%.

Kroger announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback program on Wednesday, December 11th that allows the company to repurchase $7.50 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the company to buy up to 16.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Transactions at Kroger

In other news, CFO Todd A. Foley sold 16,932 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $61.44, for a total value of $1,040,302.08. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 53,782 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,304,366.08. This trade represents a 23.94 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, SVP Stuart Aitken sold 132,627 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $63.18, for a total value of $8,379,373.86. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 217,523 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $13,743,103.14. This trade represents a 37.88 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 195,448 shares of company stock valued at $12,143,923 in the last three months. 1.40% of the stock is currently 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.