Stock Buyback Program Announced by Kroger (NYSE:KR)

Kroger (NYSE:KR) announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share repurchase program on Wednesday, December 11th, RTT News reports. The company plans to repurchase $7.50 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the company to repurchase up to 16.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are generally an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts recently commented on KR shares. Evercore ISI boosted their target price on Kroger from $62.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, September 13th. Guggenheim boosted their price objective on Kroger from $61.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, November 25th. BMO Capital Markets cut Kroger from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and set a $60.00 target price for the company. in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. Melius Research started coverage on Kroger in a report on Monday, September 23rd. They set a “hold” rating and a $55.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of Kroger from $65.00 to $70.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, December 5th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Kroger has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $63.67.

Kroger Trading Up 1.0 %

Kroger stock opened at $61.32 on Thursday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $57.90 and a 200 day moving average price of $54.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.74, a quick ratio of 1.07 and a current ratio of 1.54. Kroger has a 52 week low of $43.51 and a 52 week high of $62.03. The firm has a market capitalization of $44.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.22, a P/E/G ratio of 0.92 and a beta of 0.48.

Kroger (NYSE:KR) last issued 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 return on equity of 27.73% and a net margin of 1.85%. The company had revenue of $33.63 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $34.19 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.95 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts forecast that Kroger will post 4.45 EPS for the current year.

Kroger Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Sunday, December 1st. Investors of record on Friday, November 15th were given a dividend of $0.32 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 15th. This represents a $1.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.09%. Kroger’s payout ratio is 33.86%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Kroger

In other Kroger news, SVP Timothy A. Massa sold 25,889 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 owns 115,861 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,965,563.32. This represents a 18.26 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, VP Carin L. Fike sold 3,010 shares of Kroger 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 transaction, the vice president now directly owns 47,593 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,644,743.01. This represents a 5.95 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 58,821 shares of company stock worth $3,445,490 over the last 90 days. 1.40% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Kroger Company Profile

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.