Coordinated Financial Services Inc. Buys Shares of 4,605 The Kroger Co. (NYSE:KR)

Coordinated Financial Services Inc. bought a new stake in shares of The Kroger Co. (NYSE:KR) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund bought 4,605 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $282,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. State Street Corp grew its holdings 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 buying an additional 2,110,681 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Kroger by 0.8% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 16,019,726 shares of the company’s stock worth $914,795,000 after purchasing an additional 126,303 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its holdings in shares of Kroger by 0.6% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 6,164,855 shares of the company’s stock worth $353,246,000 after purchasing an additional 37,222 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Kroger by 3.0% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 5,035,732 shares of the company’s stock worth $307,935,000 after purchasing an additional 144,845 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB grew its holdings in shares of Kroger by 3.8% during the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 4,052,534 shares of the company’s stock worth $249,717,000 after purchasing an additional 148,221 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.93% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Kroger

In other Kroger news, SVP Yael Cosset sold 20,000 shares of the 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 completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 144,620 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,444,361.80. This represents a 12.15 % 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, CFO Todd A. Foley sold 16,932 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $61.44, for a total value of $1,040,302.08. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 53,782 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,304,366.08. This trade represents a 23.94 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 169,559 shares of company stock worth $10,587,476 over the last quarter. 1.40% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

KR has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Citigroup boosted their price objective on Kroger from $61.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday. Jefferies Financial Group raised Kroger from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $54.00 to $73.00 in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Guggenheim boosted their price objective on Kroger from $68.00 to $71.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on Kroger from $71.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday. Finally, Bank of America upped their target price on Kroger from $70.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $67.50.

Kroger Stock Performance

Shares of KR stock opened at $66.81 on Friday. 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 company has a market capitalization of $48.34 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.67, a PEG ratio of 2.85 and a beta of 0.51. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $62.27 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $59.00. The Kroger Co. has a fifty-two week low of $49.04 and a fifty-two week high of $67.57.

Kroger (NYSE:KR) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, March 6th. The company reported $1.14 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.09 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $34.31 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $34.96 billion. Kroger had a return on equity of 27.73% and a net margin of 1.85%. Analysts expect that The Kroger Co. will post 4.44 earnings per share for the current year.

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

Kroger Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Saturday, March 1st. Investors of record on Friday, February 14th were issued a dividend of $0.32 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 14th. This represents a $1.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.92%. Kroger’s dividend payout ratio is presently 33.86%.

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.