Quantinno Capital Management LP Acquires 58,356 Shares of The Kroger Co. (NYSE:KR)

Quantinno Capital Management LP grew its holdings in The Kroger Co. (NYSE:KR) by 34.6% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 226,838 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 58,356 shares during the period. Quantinno Capital Management LP’s holdings in Kroger were worth $13,871,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of KR. Mufg Securities Americas Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Kroger in the fourth quarter worth $601,000. Nissay Asset Management Corp Japan ADV grew its holdings in shares of Kroger by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. Nissay Asset Management Corp Japan ADV now owns 85,391 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,323,000 after acquiring an additional 832 shares during the period. NorthRock Partners LLC grew its holdings in shares of Kroger by 73.2% in the fourth quarter. NorthRock Partners LLC now owns 7,332 shares of the company’s stock worth $448,000 after acquiring an additional 3,099 shares during the period. Nuveen Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Kroger by 6.1% in the fourth quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC now owns 3,125,988 shares of the company’s stock worth $191,154,000 after acquiring an additional 178,580 shares during the period. Finally, OMERS ADMINISTRATION Corp grew its holdings in shares of Kroger by 10.7% in the fourth quarter. OMERS ADMINISTRATION Corp now owns 67,194 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,109,000 after acquiring an additional 6,489 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 80.93% of the company’s stock.

Kroger Trading Down 1.7%

KR opened at $66.36 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $43.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.56, a P/E/G ratio of 2.85 and a beta of 0.62. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $68.51 and its 200-day moving average price is $63.62. The Kroger Co. has a one year low of $49.04 and a one year high of $73.63. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.74, a quick ratio of 1.07 and a current ratio of 1.54.

Kroger (NYSE:KR) last released its earnings results on Thursday, March 6th. The company reported $1.14 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.09 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $34.31 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $34.96 billion. Kroger had a return on equity of 27.73% and a net margin of 1.85%. On average, equities analysts forecast that The Kroger Co. will post 4.44 EPS for the current year.

Kroger Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, June 1st. Investors of record on Thursday, May 15th will be paid a $0.32 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 15th. This represents a $1.28 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.93%. Kroger’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 34.88%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts recently commented on KR shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Kroger from $72.00 to $82.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Melius lowered Kroger from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating and set a $58.00 price target for the company. in a report on Tuesday, April 1st. Melius Research lowered Kroger from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 1st. Telsey Advisory Group reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $73.00 price target on shares of Kroger in a report on Monday, March 3rd. Finally, Guggenheim boosted their price target on Kroger from $71.00 to $73.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, April 3rd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, ten have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Kroger has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $67.06.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Kroger news, SVP Yael Cosset sold 115,149 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $68.08, for a total transaction of $7,839,343.92. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 139,338 shares in the company, valued at $9,486,131.04. This represents a 45.25% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO Todd A. Foley sold 28,105 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $66.62, for a total value of $1,872,355.10. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 52,861 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,521,599.82. This represents a 34.71% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 334,923 shares of company stock valued at $22,867,124 over the last quarter. 1.40% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Kroger Company Profile

The Kroger Co operates as a food and drug retailer in the United States. The company operates combination food and drug stores, multi-department stores, marketplace stores, and price impact warehouses. Its combination food and drug stores offer natural food and organic sections, pharmacies, general merchandise, pet centers, fresh seafood, and organic produce; and multi-department stores provide apparel, home fashion and furnishings, outdoor living, electronics, automotive products, and toys.