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Kroger (KR) Increases Despite Market Slip: Here's What You Need to Know

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In the latest trading session, Kroger (KR - Free Report) closed at $70.72, marking a +1.41% move from the previous day. The stock's change was more than the S&P 500's daily loss of 0.59%. Meanwhile, the Dow experienced a rise of 0.02%, and the technology-dominated Nasdaq saw a decrease of 1.46%.

Heading into today, shares of the supermarket chain had lost 3.17% over the past month, lagging the Retail-Wholesale sector's gain of 3.3% and the S&P 500's gain of 2.49%.

The upcoming earnings release of Kroger will be of great interest to investors. The company's earnings per share (EPS) are projected to be $0.99, reflecting a 6.45% increase from the same quarter last year. At the same time, our most recent consensus estimate is projecting a revenue of $34.07 billion, reflecting a 0.47% rise from the equivalent quarter last year.

For the entire fiscal year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $4.76 per share and a revenue of $148.7 billion, representing changes of +6.49% and +1.07%, respectively, from the prior year.

Additionally, investors should keep an eye on any recent revisions to analyst forecasts for Kroger. These recent revisions tend to reflect the evolving nature of short-term business trends. Therefore, positive revisions in estimates convey analysts' confidence in the business performance and profit potential.

Our research demonstrates that these adjustments in estimates directly associate with imminent stock price performance. To benefit from this, we have developed the Zacks Rank, a proprietary model which takes these estimate changes into account and provides an actionable rating system.

The Zacks Rank system, stretching from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has a noteworthy track record of outperforming, validated by third-party audits, with stocks rated #1 producing an average annual return of +25% since the year 1988. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate remained stagnant. As of now, Kroger holds a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

In terms of valuation, Kroger is currently trading at a Forward P/E ratio of 14.65. This denotes a discount relative to the industry average Forward P/E of 15.14.

Investors should also note that KR has a PEG ratio of 2.22 right now. 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. The Retail - Supermarkets industry had an average PEG ratio of 2.97 as trading concluded yesterday.

The Retail - Supermarkets industry is part of the Retail-Wholesale sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 185, which puts it in the bottom 26% 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.

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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