Fortitude Family Office LLC Has $66,000 Holdings in The Kroger Co. (NYSE:KR)

Fortitude Family Office LLC lifted its position in shares of The Kroger Co. (NYSE:KR) by 35.3% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 1,081 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 282 shares during the quarter. Fortitude Family Office LLC’s holdings in Kroger were worth $66,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of KR. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its stake in Kroger by 11,570.7% in the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 2,729,788 shares of the company’s stock valued at $156,417,000 after buying an additional 2,706,398 shares in the last quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. boosted its stake in Kroger by 96.6% in the 2nd quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. now owns 5,381,311 shares of the company’s stock valued at $268,689,000 after buying an additional 2,643,811 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its stake in Kroger by 6.8% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 33,057,629 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,894,202,000 after buying an additional 2,110,681 shares in the last quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec boosted its stake in Kroger by 110.5% in the 3rd quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec now owns 3,574,651 shares of the company’s stock valued at $204,828,000 after buying an additional 1,876,397 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Marshall Wace LLP boosted its stake in Kroger by 698.8% in the 2nd quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 1,878,479 shares of the company’s stock valued at $93,792,000 after buying an additional 1,643,307 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.93% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Kroger

In other news, SVP Yael Cosset sold 20,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $58.39, for a total transaction of $1,167,800.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 144,620 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,444,361.80. This represents a 12.15 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO Todd A. Foley sold 16,932 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $61.44, for a total value of $1,040,302.08. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 53,782 shares in the company, valued at $3,304,366.08. The trade was a 23.94 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 195,448 shares of company stock valued at $12,143,923 over the last three months. Company insiders own 1.40% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

KR has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. UBS Group boosted their price target on Kroger from $63.00 to $66.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Kroger from $69.00 to $71.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Bank of America lifted their price objective on Kroger from $70.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on Kroger from $58.00 to $62.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 11th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upgraded Kroger from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $54.00 to $73.00 in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $65.93.

Kroger Stock Up 0.6 %

NYSE:KR opened at $59.24 on Friday. The Kroger Co. has a 1 year low of $44.48 and a 1 year high of $63.59. The company has a current ratio of 1.54, a quick ratio of 1.07 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.74. The stock has a market cap of $42.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.67, a PEG ratio of 0.97 and a beta of 0.48. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $60.17 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $56.21.

Kroger (NYSE:KR) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, December 5th. The company reported $0.98 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.97 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $33.63 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $34.19 billion. Kroger had a return on equity of 27.73% and a net margin of 1.85%. The company’s revenue was down 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.95 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts expect that The Kroger Co. will post 4.43 earnings per share for the current year.

Kroger announced that its board has initiated a share buyback plan on Wednesday, December 11th that allows the company to repurchase $7.50 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the company to repurchase up to 16.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are usually an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

About Kroger

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.