Earnings Review - Kroger

LONDON, January 2, 2015 /PRNewswire/ --

Investor-Edge.com has issued free earnings review on The Kroger Co. (NYSE: KR). On December 4, 2014, the company announced its financial results for Q3 FY14 (period ended November 8, 2014). Click on www.investor-edge.com/FreeReports to read our free earnings review on The Kroger Co. (Kroger). During Q3 FY14, the company achieved its 44^th consecutive quarter of positive identical supermarket sales growth, excluding fuel. CEO of Kroger, Rodney McMullen, stated that the company's associates continued to execute its Customer 1^st strategy, which is building loyalty beyond the weekly ad and showing yet again that focusing on customers creates value for shareholders. He further said that the Q3 FY14 financial results were driven by strong sales and core business performance, and helped by higher fuel margins. Our free coverage report can be accessed at:

www.investor-edge.com/register

Earnings Overview 

For Q3 FY14, Kroger' total sales improved 11.2% YoY to $24.99 billion, exceeding Bloomberg analysts' forecasts of $24.84 billion. The company's total sales in Q3 FY14, excluding fuel, increased 13.7% Y-o-Y. During Q3 FY14, the company's net earnings stood at $362 million, or $0.73 per diluted share, compared to $299 million, or $0.57 per diluted share in Q3 FY13. Kroger's net earnings outperformed Bloomberg's consensus estimate of $303.0 million, or $0.61 per diluted share. Kroger reported identical supermarket sales growth, without fuel of 5.6% in Q3 FY14. The free research on KR can be downloaded as in PDF format at:

http://get.Investor-Edge.com/pdf/?c=Kroger&d=02-Jan-2015&s=KR

In Q3 FY14, Kroger's operating, general and administrative costs plus rent and depreciation, excluding retail fuel operations and the adjustment items, decreased by 21 basis points as a percent of sales Y-o-Y, primarily due to good expense control and strong sales leverage. Kroger's LIFO charge for Q3 FY14 stood at $85 million, compared to $13 million in Q3 FY13, resulting in an additional charge of $0.09 per diluted share to net earnings in the reported quarter. Kroger has increased its LIFO estimate for FY14 to $180 million.

Kroger's FIFO gross margin for Q3 FY14 stood at 21.24% of sales, while the FIFO gross margin, excluding retail fuel operations, decreased by 2 basis points on Y-o-Y basis. In Q3 FY14, FIFO operating profit, excluding fuel and the adjustment items, increased by approximately $100 million Y-o-Y. Meanwhile, on a rolling four quarters basis, Kroger's FIFO operating margin, excluding fuel and adjustment items improved 9 basis points, exceeding its goal to slightly expand its FIFO operating margin, without fuel, on a rolling four quarters basis. Sign up and read the free analyst's notes on KR at:

http://get.Investor-Edge.com/pdf/?c=Kroger&d=02-Jan-2015&s=KR

Kroger repurchased 600,000 common shares for $29 million during Q3 FY14, and has returned more than $1.8 billion to its shareholders through share buybacks and dividends over the last four quarters.

Moving forward Mr. McMullen said that, Kroger continues to deliver consistently remarkable results and expects the company to exceed its long-term earnings per share growth rate for FY14. For FY14, Kroger raised and narrowed its adjusted net earnings per diluted share guidance to a range of $3.32 to $3.36 from its previous guidance of $3.22 to $3.28. Kroger expects identical supermarket sales growth, excluding fuel, to be in the range of 4.0% to 5.0% in FY 14. Kroger has also provided long-term net earnings per diluted share growth rate guidance of 8% to 11%, plus a growing dividend. Visit Investor-Edge and access the latest research on KR at:

http://get.Investor-Edge.com/pdf/?c=Kroger&d=02-Jan-2015&s=KR

Stock Performance  

On the day of the earnings release, December 04, 2014, Kroger's stock ended the session at $60.76, up 3.58%. Since then, the company's stock has witnessed a positive trend. However, on the last close, Wednesday, December 31, 2014, the stock finished at $64.21, down 0.47%, after vacillating between $64.13 and $64.98. A total of 2.43 million shares were traded, which was below its three months average volume of 3.31 million shares. Over the last one month and over the previous three months, the company's shares have surged 7.30% and 23.48%, respectively. Further, the stock has rallied 62.43% since the start of 2014. Shares in Kroger closed above their 50-day and 200-day moving averages of $59.11 and $51.23, respectively.

Sneak Peek to Corporate Insider Trading 

In the last one month, there were 41 insider transactions made by 20 individuals. Between December 01, 2014 and December 18, 2014, a total of 31,044 shares have been purchased at an average price of $18.85 per share, for a total value of $585,289. During the same period, a total of 75,262 shares, worth $4.63 million, were sold at an average price of $61.50 per share. These are some of the insider trading transactions during the stated period: Kevin M. Dougherty, Group Vice President - Digital & Vitacost at Kroger, bought 15,000 shares at a price of $19.94 per share and sold 16,414 shares at an average price of $60.92. Michael J. Donnelly, Senior Vice President- Merchandising at Kroger, purchased 10,000 shares at a price of $16.39 per share and disposed 12,339 shares at an average price of $61.02. Robert W. Clark, Group Vice President - Non-Perishables at Kroger, bought 6,000 shares at a price of $19.94 per share and sold 7,012 shares at an average price of $61.93. Complimentary in-depth research on KR is available at:

http://get.Investor-Edge.com/pdf/?c=Kroger&d=02-Jan-2015&s=KR

About Investor-Edge.com 

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