Kroger
Kroger's revenue rose 0.3% to $147.6 billion in fiscal 2025. Its operating margin was 1.3%, down from 2.6% a year earlier. Free cash flow was $3.5 billion, up 94.5%. It paid out $3.6 billion in dividends and buybacks, 104% of free cash flow. The diluted share count fell 9.0%.
Operating margin is operating income as a share of revenue. Free cash flow is cash from operations minus capital spending. Return on capital is after-tax operating income as a share of the money invested in the business: debt plus equity, minus cash. Market cap is the last closing share price times the latest diluted share count, so it is approximate. P/E is the last close divided by diluted earnings per share over the last four quarters, or the latest fiscal year where the quarters aren't available; there is none when the company made a loss.
What Kroger does
Kroger runs supermarkets under a variety of local banner names in 35 states and the District of Columbia. As of January 31, 2026, it operated 2,697 supermarkets, of which 2,250 had pharmacies and 1,731 had fuel centers. Shoppers can also order online, for pickup at 2,408 of its supermarkets or for delivery.
Kroger makes most of its money by selling groceries, fuel and other products in its stores and online at prices above what it costs to get them to customers. Its retail operations make up substantially all of its sales and are its only reportable segment. Its own brands, which it calls Our Brands and which include Private Selection, Kroger, Smart Way and Simple Truth, represented over $39 billion of sales in 2025. It also runs what it calls alternative profit businesses, such as Kroger Precision Marketing, which sells advertising to consumer goods companies and others based on its shopper data.
Kroger says it serves approximately 63 million households a year, and over 95% of customer transactions are tied to a Kroger loyalty card. It names online retailers, mass merchants, club stores, regional chains, deep discounters, dollar stores, and ethnic, specialty and natural food stores among its competitors.
As of January 31, 2026, Kroger owned 33 food production plants, including 14 dairies; approximately 20% of Our Brands units sold in its supermarkets are made in them. It employed more than 403,000 full- and part-time employees, and more than two-thirds of its associates are covered by union contracts.
Its biggest risks, as it describes them
- Intense competition from many kinds of food sellers, in stores and online, and failing to keep up with how shoppers want to buy.
- Its relationship with the unions that represent most of its workers, including any work stoppage affecting many of its stores.
- Selling food or other products that make customers sick or hurt them, which could damage trust and bring lawsuits.
- Having to pay more into multi-employer pension plans if they fall short.
- Its large fuel business, which could face more regulation and weaker demand.
Charts show fiscal years, from the 10-K filings.
Revenue and margins
Net income and earnings per share
From fiscal 2016 to 2025, earnings per share fell 3.1% a year and net income 7.1% a year, while buybacks cut the share count by 32%.
Returns on capital
Cash flow
Payouts and share count
Valuation
Two ways to value Kroger yourself, both starting from its filings: a discounted cash flow model and the price-to-earnings method.
Discounted cash flow (DCF)
A discounted cash flow (DCF) model values a business as the cash it may generate in future, discounted back to today. The starting figures come from Kroger's 10-K (or, for net cash and shares, its latest 10-Q) and the assumptions are yours: start from one of three example scenarios, then change any figure to see what it implies for a share, and how that compares with the last share price.
Value per share on three example scenarios, from Kroger's fiscal 2025 free cash flow of $3.5B, net cash of −$14.2B at January 31, 2026 and 655 million diluted shares, from its filings. The scenarios are fitted to Kroger: the base scenario's growth in years 1 to 5 is its revenue growth over the last 3 years, -0.1% a year, kept between 0% and 20%; the cautious and optimistic ones are lower and higher, and growth in years 6 to 10 is halfway to the long-run rate. The base scenario's discount rate is 7% for a stable business (Food Retail); the cautious and optimistic ones use a point more and a point less. Select one to load it into the calculator. These are the model's arithmetic on those assumptions, not a forecast or a price target.
- Last close, October 26, 2026
- $66.77
- Value on these assumptions, against the last close
- —
- Cash flows in years 1 to 10, valued today
- —
- Everything after year 10, valued today
- —
- Plus net cash
- —
- Share of value from after year 10
How the value changes with two assumptions
Price-to-earnings (P/E) method
Another common way to value a company is to multiply its earnings per share by a price-to-earnings (P/E) multiple: the number of years of today's earnings an investor pays for a share. A higher multiple usually means investors expect earnings to grow. Choose a multiple, for example from similar companies, to see the value it gives.
Value per share on three example scenarios, from Kroger's earnings per share of $1.80 (over the last four quarters). Each grows earnings for a year at the cash flow scenarios' rates and applies a multiple to next year's earnings: 33.9×, the middle of Kroger's own P/E today, its peers' median and its sector's median (its peers' median) for the base scenario, 20% less and more for the cautious and optimistic ones. The price is brought back a year at 8%, 7% and 6%. Select one to load it into the calculator. These are the model's arithmetic on those assumptions, not a forecast or a price target.
- Last close, October 26, 2026
- $66.77
- Value at this multiple, against the last close
- —
- Kroger's P/E at the last close
- 37.1×
| Company | Last close | Earnings per share | P/E today |
|---|---|---|---|
| KrogerKR | $66.77 | $1.80 | 37.1× |
| United Natural FoodsUNFI | $48.25 | $1.34 | 36.0× |
| Casey'sCASY | $703.93 | $20.76 | 33.9× |
| Sprouts Farmers MarketSFM | $65.91 | $5.23 | 12.6× |
Balance sheet
| Fiscal year end | FY21 | FY22 | FY23 | FY24 | FY25 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cash and short-term investments | 1.8 | 1.0 | 1.9 | 4.0 | 3.3 |
| Debt incl. finance leases | 13.4 | 13.4 | 12.2 | 17.9 | 17.6 |
| Net debt (negative means net cash) | 11.5 | 12.4 | 10.3 | 13.9 | 14.2 |
| Net debt to EBITDA | 1.8x | 1.7x | 1.7x | 2.0x | 2.7x |
| Debt to equity | 1.4x | 1.3x | 1.1x | 2.2x | 3.0x |
| Interest coverage | 6.1x | 7.7x | 7.0x | 15.3x | 3.0x |
| Current ratio | 0.8x | 0.7x | 0.8x | 1.0x | 0.8x |
| Quick ratio | 0.8x | 0.7x | 0.8x | 1.0x | 0.8x |
Insider trades
Over the 12 months between October 27, 2025 and October 26, 2026, no insider bought Kroger shares on the open market, and 2 insiders sold $6.2 million.
| Date | Insider | Trade | Shares | Price | Value | Filing |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 18, 2026 | Mary Ellen AdcockExecutive Vice President | Sold | 72,901 | $60.71 | $4.4 million | Form 4 |
| Jul 14, 2026 | Yael CossetExecutive Vice President | Sold | 30,000 | $58.80 | $1.8 million | Form 4 |
Piotroski F-score
The F-score counts how many of nine simple tests of profitability, funding and efficiency a company passed in a year (Piotroski, 2000). The more tests passed, the stronger the year: 8 or 9 is strong, 0 to 2 weak. Companies that report no gross profit are scored on the other eight.
| Test | FY23 | FY24 | FY25 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Net income is positive | Pass | Pass | Pass |
| Cash from operations is positive | Pass | Pass | Pass |
| Return on assets rose | Fail | Pass | Fail |
| Cash from operations exceeds net income | Pass | Pass | Pass |
| Debt fell relative to assets | Pass | Fail | Fail |
| Current ratio rose | Pass | Pass | Fail |
| Share count didn't rise | Pass | Pass | Pass |
| Gross margin rose | — | — | — |
| Revenue rose relative to assets | Pass | Fail | Fail |
| F-score | 7 of 8 | 6 of 8 | 4 of 8 |
| Accruals ratio | −9.2% | −6.1% | −12.3% |
Compare
Put Kroger side by side with any other company we cover: revenue, growth, margins, cash flow and returns, with ten years of charts.
Similar companies
| Company | Year | Revenue growth | Operating margin | Free cash flow margin | Return on capital | Net debt to EBITDA | F-score | Compare |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kroger | FY25 | 0.3% | 1.3% | 2.3% | 7.6% | 2.7x | 4 | |
| Albertsons | FY25 | 3.5% | 0.9% | 0.6% | 5.5% | 3.3x | 5 | Compare |
| United Natural Foods | FY26 | −2.0% | 0.7% | 1.0% | 5.3% | 3.0x | 6 | Compare |
| Casey's | FY26 | 10.2% | — | 4.1% | 13.6% | 1.3x | 7 | Compare |
| Sprouts Farmers Market | FY25 | 14.1% | 7.8% | 5.3% | 46.9% | −0.3x | 7 | Compare |
10 years of figures
| Fiscal year | FY16 | FY17 | FY18 | FY19 | FY20 | FY21 | FY22 | FY23 | FY24 | FY25 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Income statement | ||||||||||
| Revenue | 115.3 | 123.3 | 121.9 | 122.3 | 132.5 | 137.9 | 148.3 | 150.0 | 147.1 | 147.6 |
| Revenue growth | 5.0% | 6.9% | −1.2% | 0.4% | 8.3% | 4.1% | 7.5% | 1.2% | −1.9% | 0.3% |
| Gross profit | 25.8 | 27.6 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Research and development | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Operating income | 3.5 | 2.6 | 2.6 | 2.3 | 2.8 | 3.5 | 4.1 | 3.1 | 3.8 | 1.9 |
| Net income | 2.0 | 1.9 | 3.1 | 1.7 | 2.6 | 1.7 | 2.2 | 2.2 | 2.7 | 1.0 |
| Diluted EPS (US$) | 2.05 | 2.09 | 3.76 | 2.04 | 3.27 | 2.17 | 3.06 | 2.96 | 3.67 | 1.54 |
| Diluted shares (millions) | 958 | 904 | 818 | 805 | 781 | 754 | 727 | 725 | 720 | 655 |
| Cash flow | ||||||||||
| Cash from operations | 4.3 | 3.4 | 4.2 | 4.7 | 6.8 | 6.2 | 4.5 | 6.8 | 5.8 | 7.3 |
| Capital expenditure | 3.7 | 2.8 | 3.0 | 3.1 | 2.9 | 2.6 | 3.1 | 3.9 | 4.0 | 3.9 |
| Free cash flow | 0.6 | 0.6 | 1.2 | 1.5 | 4.0 | 3.6 | 1.4 | 2.9 | 1.8 | 3.5 |
| Dividends paid | 0.4 | 0.4 | 0.4 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.6 | 0.7 | 0.8 | 0.9 | 0.9 |
| Share buybacks | 1.8 | 1.6 | 2.0 | 0.5 | 1.3 | 1.6 | 1.0 | 0.1 | 4.2 | 2.7 |
| Acquisitions | 0.4 | 0.0 | 0.2 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
| Stock-based compensation | 0.1 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.2 |
| Balance sheet at fiscal year end | ||||||||||
| Cash and short-term investments | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.4 | 0.4 | 1.7 | 1.8 | 1.0 | 1.9 | 4.0 | 3.3 |
| Debt incl. finance leases | 13.3 | 14.8 | 15.2 | 14.1 | 13.4 | 13.4 | 13.4 | 12.2 | 17.9 | 17.6 |
| Total assets | 36.5 | 37.2 | 38.1 | 45.3 | 48.7 | 49.1 | 49.6 | 50.5 | 52.6 | 50.0 |
| Total liabilities | 29.8 | 30.3 | 30.3 | 36.7 | 39.1 | 39.7 | 39.6 | 38.9 | 44.3 | 44.0 |
| Shareholders' equity | 6.7 | 6.9 | 7.9 | 8.6 | 9.6 | 9.5 | 10.0 | 11.6 | 8.3 | 5.9 |
| Margins and ratios | ||||||||||
| Gross margin | 22.4% | 22.4% | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Operating margin | 3.0% | 2.1% | 2.1% | 1.8% | 2.1% | 2.5% | 2.8% | 2.1% | 2.6% | 1.3% |
| Net margin | 1.7% | 1.6% | 2.5% | 1.4% | 1.9% | 1.2% | 1.5% | 1.4% | 1.8% | 0.7% |
| Free cash flow margin | 0.5% | 0.5% | 1.0% | 1.3% | 3.0% | 2.6% | 1.0% | 1.9% | 1.2% | 2.3% |
| Return on capital | 12.3% | 12.7% | 9.2% | 7.7% | 9.8% | 13.4% | 14.8% | 10.7% | 13.9% | 7.6% |
| Return on equity | 29.2% | 28.0% | 42.0% | 20.1% | 28.4% | 17.4% | 23.0% | 20.0% | 26.8% | 14.3% |
| Return on assets | 5.6% | 5.2% | 8.3% | 4.0% | 5.5% | 3.4% | 4.5% | 4.3% | 5.2% | 2.0% |
| Net debt to EBITDA | 2.2x | 2.9x | 2.9x | 2.8x | 2.1x | 1.8x | 1.7x | 1.7x | 2.0x | 2.7x |