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Kroger (KR) Stock Falls Amid Market Uptick: What Investors Need to Know

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Kroger (KR - Free Report) closed the latest trading day at $68.20, indicating a -0.04% change from the previous session's end. The stock's change was less than the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.41%. At the same time, the Dow added 0.08%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 0.67%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the supermarket chain had lost 5.26% over the past month. This has lagged the Retail-Wholesale sector's gain of 5.64% and the S&P 500's gain of 6.13% in that time.

Market participants will be closely following the financial results of Kroger in its upcoming release. The company is predicted to post an EPS of $1.44, indicating a 0.7% growth compared to the equivalent quarter last year. Simultaneously, our latest consensus estimate expects the revenue to be $45.38 billion, showing a 0.25% escalation compared to the year-ago quarter.

For the annual period, the Zacks Consensus Estimates anticipate earnings of $4.74 per share and a revenue of $149.08 billion, signifying shifts of +6.04% and +1.33%, respectively, from the last year.

It's also important for investors to be aware of any recent modifications to analyst estimates for Kroger. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. As a result, upbeat changes in estimates indicate analysts' favorable outlook on the company's business health and profitability.

Our research suggests that these changes in estimates have a direct relationship with upcoming stock price performance. 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. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection remained stagnant. At present, Kroger boasts a Zacks Rank of #4 (Sell).

In the context of valuation, Kroger is at present trading with a Forward P/E ratio of 14.39. This denotes a discount relative to the industry's average Forward P/E of 14.95.

We can additionally observe that KR currently boasts a PEG ratio of 2.04. The PEG ratio is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but this metric also takes the company's expected earnings growth rate into account. As the market closed yesterday, the Retail - Supermarkets industry was having an average PEG ratio of 1.81.

The Retail - Supermarkets industry is part of the Retail-Wholesale sector. This industry, currently bearing a Zacks Industry Rank of 92, finds itself in the top 38% echelons 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.

Ensure to harness Zacks.com to stay updated with all these stock-shifting metrics, among others, in the next trading sessions.


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