Kroger (KR) closed at $38.42 in the latest trading session, marking a -1.13% move from the prior day. This change lagged the S&P 500's daily loss of 0.87%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the supermarket chain had gained 2.34% over the past month. This has outpaced the Retail-Wholesale sector's gain of 1.76% and the S&P 500's gain of 1.61% in that time.

Investors will be hoping for strength from KR as it approaches its next earnings release. The company is expected to report EPS of $0.99, down 18.85% from the prior-year quarter. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $39.22 billion, down 5.6% from the prior-year quarter.

KR's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $2.83 per share and revenue of $129.79 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of -18.44% and -2.04%, respectively.

Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for KR. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the company's business and profitability.

Based on our research, we believe these estimate revisions are directly related to near-team stock moves. To benefit from this, we have developed the Zacks Rank, a proprietary model which takes these estimate changes into account and provides an actionable rating system.

Ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), the Zacks Rank system has a proven, outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks returning an average of +25% annually since 1988. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.56% lower. KR is holding a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold) right now.

Digging into valuation, KR currently has a Forward P/E ratio of 13.75. This valuation marks a no noticeable deviation compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 13.75.

Investors should also note that KR has a PEG ratio of 2.16 right now. The PEG ratio is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but this metric also takes the company's expected earnings growth rate into account. The Retail - Supermarkets was holding an average PEG ratio of 2.25 at yesterday's closing price.

The Retail - Supermarkets industry is part of the Retail-Wholesale sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 204, putting it in the bottom 20% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

You can find more information on all of these metrics, and much more, on Zacks.com.

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