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Kroger (KR) Stock Sinks As Market Gains: What You Should Know

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Kroger (KR - Free Report) closed at $31.63 in the latest trading session, marking a -0.6% move from the prior day. This change lagged the S&P 500's 0.55% gain on the day. Meanwhile, the Dow gained 0.18%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, added 1.03%.

Heading into today, shares of the supermarket chain had gained 1.95% over the past month, outpacing the Retail-Wholesale sector's loss of 1.11% and lagging the S&P 500's gain of 3.13% in that time.

Wall Street will be looking for positivity from KR as it approaches its next earnings report date. On that day, KR is projected to report earnings of $0.69 per share, which would represent year-over-year growth of 21.05%. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $31.01 billion, up 7.33% from the year-ago period.

Looking at the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $3.35 per share and revenue of $132.74 billion. These totals would mark changes of +52.27% and +8.55%, respectively, from last year.

Any recent changes to analyst estimates for KR should also be noted by investors. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. As a result, we can interpret positive estimate revisions as a good sign for the company's business outlook.

Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. Investors can capitalize on this by using the Zacks Rank. This model considers these estimate changes and provides a simple, actionable rating system.

The Zacks Rank system, which ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has an impressive outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks generating an average annual return of +25% since 1988. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.17% higher within the past month. KR currently has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

In terms of valuation, KR is currently trading at a Forward P/E ratio of 9.49. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 20.94, which means KR is trading at a discount to the group.

It is also worth noting that KR currently has a PEG ratio of 1.5. This metric is used similarly to the famous P/E ratio, but the PEG ratio also takes into account the stock's expected earnings growth rate. KR's industry had an average PEG ratio of 2.71 as of yesterday's close.

The Retail - Supermarkets industry is part of the Retail-Wholesale sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 82, putting it in the top 33% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

Be sure to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and many more, on Zacks.com.


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