Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC Has $8.76 Million Stock Holdings in The Kroger Co. $KR

Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of The Kroger Co. (NYSE:KR) by 7,073.0% in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 122,085 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 120,383 shares during the quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Kroger were worth $8,757,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in KR. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in shares of Kroger by 85.3% in the 1st quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 6,397,771 shares of the company’s stock valued at $433,065,000 after acquiring an additional 2,945,848 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC bought a new position in Kroger in the first quarter worth approximately $178,385,000. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. grew its stake in Kroger by 101.7% in the first quarter. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. now owns 4,084,584 shares of the company’s stock valued at $276,485,000 after acquiring an additional 2,059,574 shares during the period. VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al acquired a new stake in Kroger in the second quarter valued at approximately $120,965,000. Finally, Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. raised its position in shares of Kroger by 80.7% during the second quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 2,185,530 shares of the company’s stock worth $156,768,000 after purchasing an additional 976,100 shares during the period. 80.93% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Kroger Trading Up 1.4%

NYSE:KR opened at $67.08 on Thursday. The Kroger Co. has a 52 week low of $57.69 and a 52 week high of $74.90. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $66.37 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $68.32. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.85, a quick ratio of 0.54 and a current ratio of 0.95. The firm has a market cap of $44.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.03, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.92 and a beta of 0.55.

Kroger (NYSE:KR) last released its earnings results on Thursday, September 11th. The company reported $1.04 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.00 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $33.94 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $34.08 billion. Kroger had a return on equity of 32.62% and a net margin of 1.86%.Kroger’s quarterly revenue was up .1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.93 earnings per share. Kroger has set its FY 2025 guidance at 4.700-4.800 EPS. On average, equities analysts expect that The Kroger Co. will post 4.44 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Kroger Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 14th will be given a dividend of $0.35 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 14th. This represents a $1.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.1%. Kroger’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 35.53%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently issued reports on KR. Roth Capital raised shares of Kroger from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $75.00 price target for the company in a research report on Wednesday, September 17th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Kroger in a report on Tuesday. Evercore ISI lowered their target price on shares of Kroger from $82.00 to $80.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, October 14th. Roth Mkm raised shares of Kroger from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the company from $66.00 to $75.00 in a research report on Wednesday, September 17th. Finally, Wall Street Zen lowered Kroger from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Sunday, October 26th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $74.39.

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.