Kroger Q2 Profit Rises; Lifts FY15 Earnings Guidance

(KR – Get Report) is scheduled to release its 2015 second quarter earnings results before the market open on Friday morning. The firm set a “buy” rating and a $43.00 price target on the stock. “Our confidence in Kroger has never been stronger”. Barclays reduced their target price on Kroger to $38.00 and set an equal weight rating for the company in a report on Thursday, September 3rd.

The average estimate among 34 Estimize users was for earnings of $0.41 per share and revenue of $25.67 billion. Oppenheimer restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Kroger in a research note on Tuesday, June 23rd. 5 analysts have rated the company at hold. The stock now has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $39.43. The stock was sold at an average price of $38.70, for a total value of $270,900.00. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Common Sto, a NYQ listed company, has a current market cap of 36.12B and on average over the past 3 months has seen 7151800 shares trade hands on a daily basis. The firm has a market capitalization of $36.15 billion and a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.084. The Kroger Co. has dropped 3.22% during the last 3-month period. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.70 earnings per share. The consensus analyst estimates according to First Call for the next quarter is 0.38.

Kroger raised its full-year earnings forecast to $1.92-$1.98 per share from $1.90-$1.95 per share it had estimated previously.

-Revenue Change (Y-o-Y): 0.9%. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 14th were paid a dividend of $0.21 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, August 12th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.25%.

The company raised its profit and sales forecast for the year, prompting the stock to close at $37.29, up 5.3 percent or $1.89.

Meanwhile, Kroger and other traditional grocers and retailers such as giant discounter Wal-Mart Stores (NYSE:WMT) have been expanding their organic and natural food offerings as they move to feed the appetites of the millennials, baby boomers and others in the growing portion of the population craving healthier food. The Business processes and also manufactures a few of the food available in its supermarkets.

The chief noted that that the company is working toward achieving its 48th consecutive quarter of positive identical supermarket sales growth, excluding fuel, three months from now. Approximately 45% of these supermarkets were operated in Company-owned facilities, including some Company-owned buildings on leased land.