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

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Kroger (KR - Free Report) closed the most recent trading day at $47.52, moving +0.66% from the previous trading session. This change outpaced the S&P 500's 0.4% gain on the day. Meanwhile, the Dow gained 0.45%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, lost 0.44%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the supermarket chain had lost 1.13% over the past month. This has lagged the Retail-Wholesale sector's gain of 14.83% and the S&P 500's gain of 12.15% in that time.

Investors will be hoping for strength from Kroger as it approaches its next earnings release. The company is expected to report EPS of $0.81, up 1.25% from the prior-year quarter. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $33.99 billion, up 7.27% from the prior-year quarter.

For the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $3.91 per share and revenue of $147.07 billion, which would represent changes of +6.25% and +6.66%, respectively, from the prior year.

It is also important to note the recent changes to analyst estimates for Kroger. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the company's business outlook.

Based on our research, we believe these estimate revisions are directly related to near-team stock moves. We developed the Zacks Rank to capitalize on this phenomenon. Our system takes these estimate changes into account and delivers a clear, actionable rating model.

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 remained stagnant within the past month. Kroger currently has a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

Looking at its valuation, Kroger is holding a Forward P/E ratio of 12.08. This valuation marks a no noticeable deviation compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 12.08.

We can also see that KR currently has a PEG ratio of 1.07. 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 1.86 as of yesterday's close.

The Retail - Supermarkets industry is part of the Retail-Wholesale sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 173, which puts it in the bottom 32% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our individual 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.

Make sure to utilize Zacks.com to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and more, in the coming trading sessions.


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