Back to top

Image: Bigstock

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

Read MoreHide Full Article

Kroger (KR - Free Report) closed the most recent trading day at $32.30, moving -0.66% from the previous trading session. This change lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 3.15%. At the same time, the Dow added 3.85%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 2.44%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the supermarket chain had gained 1.75% over the past month. This has lagged the Retail-Wholesale sector's gain of 3.53% and outpaced the S&P 500's gain of 0.38% in that time.

KR will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release. In that report, analysts expect KR to post earnings of $0.89 per share. This would mark year-over-year growth of 23.61%. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $39.99 billion, up 7.36% from the prior-year quarter.

KR's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $2.47 per share and revenue of $126.38 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of +12.27% and +3.35%, respectively.

Investors might also notice recent changes to analyst estimates for KR. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the company's business and profitability.

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. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection has moved 2.12% higher. KR is currently a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

Digging into valuation, KR currently has a Forward P/E ratio of 13.19. This valuation marks a premium compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 11.7.

We can also see that KR currently has a PEG ratio of 2.7. 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 2.39 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 54, which puts it in the top 22% 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.

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


See More Zacks Research for These Tickers


Normally $25 each - click below to receive one report FREE:


The Kroger Co. (KR) - free report >>

Published in