Kroger (KR) Stock Sinks As Market Gains: What You Should Know
Kroger (KR) closed the most recent trading day at $47.14, moving -1.19% from the previous trading session. This change lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.28%. Meanwhile, the Dow gained 0.11%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, added 0.14%.
Heading into today, shares of the supermarket chain had gained 4.67% over the past month, outpacing the Retail-Wholesale sector's loss of 3.84% and the S&P 500's gain of 0.12% in that time.
Investors will be hoping for strength from Kroger as it approaches its next earnings release. On that day, Kroger is projected to report earnings of $0.70 per share, which would represent a year-over-year decline of 13.58%. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $32.23 billion, up 4.85% from the prior-year quarter.
Looking at the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $3.49 per share and revenue of $137.43 billion. These totals would mark changes of +0.58% and +3.72%, respectively, from last year.
Any recent changes to analyst estimates for Kroger should also be noted by investors. Recent revisions tend to reflect the latest 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.
Ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), the Zacks Rank system has a proven, outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks returning an average of +25% annually since 1988. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection has moved 0.18% lower. Kroger is currently a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).
Valuation is also important, so investors should note that Kroger has a Forward P/E ratio of 13.68 right now. This represents a premium compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 13.33.
Also, we should mention that KR has a PEG ratio of 1.63. 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. Retail - Supermarkets stocks are, on average, holding a PEG ratio of 1.24 based on yesterday's closing prices.
The Retail - Supermarkets industry is part of the Retail-Wholesale sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 23, putting it in the top 10% 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.
Be sure to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and many more, on Zacks.com.
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