Mackenzie Financial Corp Acquires 605,591 Shares of The Kroger Co. (NYSE:KR)

Mackenzie Financial Corp boosted its holdings in shares of The Kroger Co. (NYSE:KR) by 378.8% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 765,445 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 605,591 shares during the quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp’s holdings in Kroger were worth $34,988,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Kroger during the fourth quarter valued at about $156,126,000. Alliancebernstein L.P. lifted its position in shares of Kroger by 82.0% in the 4th quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 5,667,159 shares of the company’s stock worth $252,642,000 after acquiring an additional 2,552,989 shares during the period. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership acquired a new stake in shares of Kroger during the 1st quarter worth approximately $71,410,000. Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. bought a new stake in shares of Kroger during the third quarter valued at approximately $42,220,000. Finally, Brandywine Global Investment Management LLC lifted its position in Kroger by 32.3% in the first quarter. Brandywine Global Investment Management LLC now owns 3,826,004 shares of the company’s stock worth $188,890,000 after purchasing an additional 933,009 shares during the period. 80.93% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

KR has been the topic of several analyst reports. Guggenheim boosted their price target on shares of Kroger from $60.00 to $61.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 19th. BNP Paribas reissued an “underperform” rating and issued a $48.00 target price on shares of Kroger in a research note on Monday, April 8th. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded shares of Kroger from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $58.00 to $65.00 in a research note on Tuesday. Evercore ISI dropped their target price on Kroger from $63.00 to $62.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday. Finally, Telsey Advisory Group raised their target price on Kroger from $60.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 28th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $55.17.

Kroger Trading Down 0.0 %

KR stock opened at $55.26 on Thursday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $52.84 and a 200 day moving average price of $47.69. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.04, a current ratio of 0.81 and a quick ratio of 0.36. The Kroger Co. has a fifty-two week low of $42.10 and a fifty-two week high of $58.34. The stock has a market capitalization of $39.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.67, a P/E/G ratio of 2.58 and a beta of 0.48.

Kroger (NYSE:KR) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, March 7th. The company reported $1.34 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.13 by $0.21. The company had revenue of $37.06 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $37.07 billion. Kroger had a return on equity of 31.44% and a net margin of 1.44%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 6.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.99 earnings per share. Analysts expect that The Kroger Co. will post 4.43 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Kroger Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, June 1st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, May 15th will be issued a dividend of $0.29 per share. This represents a $1.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.10%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, May 14th. Kroger’s dividend payout ratio is 39.19%.

Kroger 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.