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

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Kroger (KR) closed the most recent trading day at $22.99, moving +1.46% from the previous trading session. This move outpaced the S&P 500's daily gain of 1.21%. At the same time, the Dow added 0.97%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 1.35%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the supermarket chain had gained 4.62% over the past month. This has outpaced the Retail-Wholesale sector's loss of 4.85% and the S&P 500's loss of 3.6% in that time.

Investors will be hoping for strength from KR as it approaches its next earnings release. On that day, KR is projected to report earnings of $0.42 per share, which would represent year-over-year growth of 2.44%. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $28.42 billion, up 1.98% from the year-ago period.

KR's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $2.17 per share and revenue of $122.88 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of +2.84% and +1.41%, respectively.

It is also important to note the recent changes to analyst estimates for KR. Recent revisions tend to reflect the latest 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 0.15% lower. KR is holding a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold) right now.

In terms of valuation, KR is currently trading at a Forward P/E ratio of 10.42. This valuation marks a discount compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 12.38.

Meanwhile, KR's PEG ratio is currently 1.6. 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. The Retail - Supermarkets was holding an average PEG ratio of 1.96 at yesterday's closing price.

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.

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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