J. W. Coons Advisors LLC Acquires 366 Shares of The Kroger Co. (NYSE:KR)

J. W. Coons Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in The Kroger Co. (NYSE:KR) by 0.9% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 40,665 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 366 shares during the period. J. W. Coons Advisors LLC’s holdings in Kroger were worth $2,487,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Board of the Pension Protection Fund bought a new position in shares of Kroger in the 4th quarter worth approximately $1,113,000. Nordea Investment Management AB raised its stake in Kroger by 3.8% during the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 4,052,534 shares of the company’s stock worth $249,717,000 after acquiring an additional 148,221 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in Kroger by 1.1% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,890,887 shares of the company’s stock worth $280,248,000 after acquiring an additional 53,006 shares during the period. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. raised its stake in Kroger by 1.7% during the 3rd quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 2,176,218 shares of the company’s stock worth $124,697,000 after acquiring an additional 36,083 shares during the period. Finally, World Investment Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Kroger during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $566,000. Institutional investors own 80.93% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Timothy A. Massa sold 25,889 shares of Kroger stock in a transaction on Friday, December 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.12, for a total transaction of $1,556,446.68. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 115,861 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,965,563.32. This trade represents a 18.26 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, SVP Yael Cosset sold 20,000 shares of Kroger stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $58.39, for a total value of $1,167,800.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 144,620 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,444,361.80. This trade represents a 12.15 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 195,448 shares of company stock valued at $12,143,923 over the last three months. 1.40% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have commented on KR. Roth Mkm raised their target price on shares of Kroger from $52.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, December 6th. Guggenheim raised their target price on shares of Kroger from $68.00 to $71.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Evercore ISI raised their target price on shares of Kroger from $70.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Bank of America raised their target price on shares of Kroger from $70.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of Kroger from $70.00 to $73.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $67.19.

Kroger Trading Up 1.0 %

KR stock opened at $65.03 on Monday. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $61.77 and a 200 day moving average price of $58.26. The Kroger Co. has a fifty-two week low of $46.96 and a fifty-two week high of $66.18. 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 $47.05 billion, a PE ratio of 17.20, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.85 and a beta of 0.47.

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

Kroger announced that its board has authorized a stock repurchase program on Wednesday, December 11th that allows the company to buyback $7.50 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the company to purchase up to 16.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are usually an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Kroger Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, March 1st. Shareholders 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 yield of 1.97%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 14th. Kroger’s payout ratio is 33.86%.

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.