Kroger
KR on NYSE. Kroger sells groceries, fuel, and pharmacy items to retail customers. Market value $34.7bn.
Price checks use the past 12 months to August 2026. Quality checks use five annual reports, the latest for the year to January 2026.
Should I look at this?
Not a fit for our list right now
Why it could be worth it
See Everyday goods stocks that passed both tests
This is not advice. Check the numbers below.
For every $100 of what the whole company costs, it produced $6.91 of spare cash in the past 12 months. A savings account pays about $4.
You pay 23.1 years of operating profit for the business. The average large US company costs around 18.
Each dollar kept in the business earns 13 cents a year. Above 10 is good.
Quality score: 49 of 100. Price score: 63 of 100. Our list needs 70 on quality and 60 on price.
$58.41 a share, 8% above its 1-year low
Over the past year the price has ranged from $54.15 to $76.58.
Dividend: 2.6% a year
Paid every year for at least 5 years
Prices from Tuesday’s close (6 October).
Five years of cash, in billions
Spare cash swings from quarter to quarter here: $2.4 billion in the past 12 months, $3.5 billion in the year to January 2026.
| Revenue | |||||
| Revenue | $137.9bn | $148.3bn | $150.0bn | $147.1bn | $147.6bn |
| Operating margin | |||||
| Operating margin | 2.5% | 2.8% | 2.1% | 2.6% | 1.3% |
| Debt to equity | |||||
| Debt to equity | 1.41 | 1.33 | 1.05 | 2.16 | 2.96 |
| Shares outstanding | |||||
| Shares outstanding | 0.72bn | 0.72bn | 0.72bn | 0.63bn | 0.59bn |
Health checks
- Free cash flow positive5 of 5 years
- Accounting looks honest (Beneish)Not enough data
- Financial strength (Piotroski)7 of 8 checks we could run
- Profit backed by cash (accruals)No
- Debt2.96× equity
- Revenue growth, five yearsSlow, 2.2% a year
- Buying back its own sharesYes, 17% fewer since 2022
The quarter to August 2026
How the business did, compared with the same quarter a year earlier.
- Sales: $34.6 billion last quarter, up 2% on a year ago.
- Profit: $641 million, up 5% on a year ago.
- It keeps 1 cents of each $1 of sales as operating profit, down from 3 cents a year earlier.
- Spare cash over the past 12 months: $2.4 billion, up from $2.2 billion.
- 9% fewer shares than a year ago. Each share owns a bit more of the company.
- Debt is $13.7 billion more than cash, up from $11.9 billion a year ago.
- Sales grew on a year ago in each of the last 4 quarters.
| Quarter to | Amount |
|---|---|
| November 2024 | $33.6bn |
| January 2025 | $34.3bn |
| May 2025 | $45.1bn |
| August 2025 | $33.9bn |
| November 2025 | $33.9bn |
| January 2026 | $34.7bn |
| May 2026 | $46.1bn |
| August 2026 | $34.6bn |
| Quarter to | Amount |
|---|---|
| November 2024 | $618m |
| January 2025 | $634m |
| May 2025 | $866m |
| August 2025 | $609m |
| November 2025 | -$1.3bn |
| January 2026 | $861m |
| May 2026 | $903m |
| August 2026 | $641m |
From the company's quarterly reports to the SEC.
Dates
- Next results (estimated)
- 3 December 2026
- Last annual report (10-K)
- 31 March 2026
- Next quarterly (estimated, 10-Q)
- 18 December 2026
Who owns it
8 long-term investors we follow own it, unchanged from 8 last quarter. 1,313 funds in all.
- LSV Asset ManagementJosef Lakonishok
- Value
- $366m
- Share of fund
- 0.7%
- Auxier Asset ManagementJeff Auxier
- Value
- $19m
- Share of fund
- 2.5%
| Fund | Value | Share of that fund | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Berkshire HathawayWarren Buffett | $2.2bn | 0.7% | Cut |
| LSV Asset ManagementJosef Lakonishok | $366m | 0.7% | |
| Auxier Asset ManagementJeff Auxier | $19m | 2.5% | |
| Hosking PartnersJeremy Hosking | $13m | 0.4% | Cut |
| Gotham Asset ManagementJoel Greenblatt | $13m | <0.1% | Added |
| GMOJeremy Grantham | $9m | <0.1% | Cut |
| Platinum Investment ManagementPlatinum team | $5m | 1.1% | Added |
| Jensen Investment ManagementEric Schoenstein | $3m | <0.1% | Cut |
Largest holders overall
- BlackRock$3.0bnAdded
- Berkshire Hathaway$2.2bnCut
- Vanguard Capital Management$2.0bnCut
- Vanguard Portfolio Management$1.7bnCut
- State Street$1.6bnCut
- Wellington Management Group LLP$940mCut
- FMR$922mAdded
- Geode Capital Management$872m
- Franklin Resources$834m
- Dimensional Fund Advisors LP$696m
From 13F filings for the quarter ended 30 June 2026.
Big holders and activists
5 investors own more than 5%.
- BlackRock, Inc.Passive investor7.5%Since 31 March 2025
- Vanguard Capital ManagementPassive investor6.9%Since 31 March 2026
- Vanguard Portfolio ManagementPassive investor5.2%Since 31 March 2026
- STATE STREET CORPORATIONPassive investor5.0%−0.1 ptsSince 31 March 2026
- Wellington Management Group LLPPassive investorat least 3.2%−1.8 pts(filed with 2 related holders)Since 31 December 2025
- The Vanguard GroupPassive investorSold down below 5%Since 13 March 2026
| Holder | Stake | Since | |
|---|---|---|---|
BlackRock, Inc. Passive investor | 7.5% | 31 March 2025 | |
Vanguard Capital Management Passive investor | 6.9% | 31 March 2026 | |
Vanguard Portfolio Management Passive investor | 5.2% | 31 March 2026 | |
STATE STREET CORPORATION Passive investor | 5.0%−0.1 pts | 31 March 2026 | |
Wellington Management Group LLP Passive investor | at least 3.2%−1.8 pts (filed with 2 related holders) | 31 December 2025 | |
The Vanguard Group Passive investor | Sold down below 5% | 13 March 2026 |
From Schedule 13D and 13G filings: anyone owning more than 5% must file one.
What insiders did
No insider bought shares on the open market in the last 12 months. 2 sold $6m.
- Adcock Mary EllenExecutive Vice PresidentSold
- Date
- 18 September 2026
- Shares
- 72,901
- Price
- $60.70
- Value
- $4m
- COSSET YAELExecutive Vice PresidentSold
- Date
- 14 July 2026
- Shares
- 30,000
- Price
- $58.80
- Value
- $2m
| Date | Who | Did | Shares | Price | Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18 September 2026 | Adcock Mary Ellen Executive Vice President | Sold | 72,901 | $60.70 | $4m |
| 14 July 2026 | COSSET YAEL Executive Vice President | Sold | 30,000 | $58.80 | $2m |
From Form 4 filings: insiders must report trades in their own company's shares within two days.
Warning signs in its filings
Problems the company itself reported to the SEC, in its own words.
None of the warning signs we check for were found.
We look for five warning signs: doubt it can keep going, weak checks on its own accounts, a notice that its past accounts can't be relied on, a change of auditor, and one customer bringing in a big share of sales. We don't check lawsuits, investigations or debt yet.
We checked the auditor's report, internal controls, restatement notices, auditor changes and big customers in the 10-K filed 31 Mar 2026, plus the 10-Q filed 18 Sep 2026 and 7 later 8-Ks.
A 10-K is the yearly report every US company files with the SEC. An 8-K is a short notice of a big event.
What could go wrong
- It carries a lot of debt: 3.0× its equity.
Whether the price already reflects the risks is what the deep dive is for.
The deep dive
Everything above is arithmetic on public filings. The deep dive reads the last ten years of annual reports, the proxy statements, and the earnings calls, then argues the case the way Buffett, Klarman, and Hohn would, and checks every claim against the source.
- What the business is worth, as a range, and the margin of safety at today’s price
- Prices to start buying, buy, and buy hard
- The three things that would make this a mistake
- Every number footnoted to the filing it came from
Your first deep dive is free.
Not advice. Numbers on this page come from SEC filings and are updated each night; prices are updated again after the US market closes. The five-year figures are rounded.