9,884 Shares in The Kroger Co. (NYSE:KR) Bought by World Investment Advisors LLC

World Investment Advisors LLC bought a new position in The Kroger Co. (NYSE:KR) during the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm bought 9,884 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $566,000.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. State Street Corp lifted its stake in Kroger by 6.8% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 33,057,629 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,894,202,000 after acquiring an additional 2,110,681 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Kroger by 0.8% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 16,019,726 shares of the company’s stock valued at $914,795,000 after acquiring an additional 126,303 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in Kroger by 5.6% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 13,591,402 shares of the company’s stock valued at $678,562,000 after acquiring an additional 723,771 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc lifted its stake in Kroger by 13.4% during the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 7,759,992 shares of the company’s stock valued at $387,456,000 after acquiring an additional 917,923 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Point72 Asset Management L.P. lifted its stake in Kroger by 96.6% during the 2nd quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. now owns 5,381,311 shares of the company’s stock valued at $268,689,000 after acquiring an additional 2,643,811 shares in the last quarter. 80.93% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have weighed in on KR shares. BNP Paribas started coverage on Kroger in a research note on Friday, October 18th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $56.00 price objective on the stock. StockNews.com lowered Kroger from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, September 16th. Jefferies Financial Group raised 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. Roth Mkm raised their target price on Kroger from $52.00 to $56.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, December 6th. Finally, Melius Research assumed coverage on Kroger in a research report on Monday, September 23rd. They set a “hold” rating and a $55.00 target price for the company. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $64.31.

Kroger Trading Down 1.4 %

Shares of KR opened at $61.18 on Wednesday. The business has a 50-day moving average of $58.50 and a 200 day moving average of $55.05. The Kroger Co. has a fifty-two week low of $44.07 and a fifty-two week high of $63.59. The firm has a market cap of $44.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.96 and a beta of 0.48. 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 (NYSE:KR) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 5th. The company reported $0.98 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $34.19 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.95 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts forecast that The Kroger Co. will post 4.44 EPS for the current year.

Kroger Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Sunday, December 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 15th were paid a $0.32 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 15th. This represents a $1.28 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.09%. Kroger’s dividend payout ratio is currently 33.86%.

Kroger announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback plan on Wednesday, December 11th that allows the company to buyback $7.50 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the company to reacquire up to 16.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are generally an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Valerie L. Jabbar sold 3,000 shares of Kroger stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $55.91, for a total transaction of $167,730.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 74,084 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,142,036.44. This trade represents a 3.89 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, VP Brian W. Nichols sold 6,922 shares of Kroger stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $55.80, for a total value of $386,247.60. Following the sale, the vice president now owns 14,063 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $784,715.40. This trade represents a 32.99 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 188,438 shares of company stock worth $11,657,598 in the last quarter. 1.40% of the stock is owned by company 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.