Kroger Q1 earnings: we are 'off to a solid start in 2024'

Kroger Co (NYSE: KR) is trading up in premarket on Thursday after coming in ahead of Street estimates for its first financial quarter. 

Shares of the retail firm are still down some 10% versus their year-to-date high. 

Kroger offers positive outlook

Kroger stock is gaining this morning because the management issued good enough guidance for the future as well. KR now forecasts its adjusted per-share earnings to fall between $4.30 and $4.50. 

Experts had forecast $4.43 a share instead. Rodney McMullen - the chief executive of Kroger Inc said in a press release today:

Kroger saw gross margin come in at 22.4% of sales in Q1. Kroger shares currently pay a dividend yield of 2.23%. 

Kroger Q1 earnings snapshot

• Earned $947 million versus the year-ago $962 million
• Per-share earnings also inched down from $1.32 to $1.29
• Adjusted EPS printed at $1.43 as per the earnings report
• Revenue remained roughly unchanged at $45.3 billion
• Consensus was $1.33 a share on $45.05 billion in revenue

Kroger expects its adjusted free cash flow to hit as much as $2.7 billion in 2024. CEO McMullen also said on Thursday:

Should you buy Kroger stock?

Kroger reported a more than 8.0% annualised growth in its digital sales for the first quarter today.

Ahead of its earnings release, Kelly Bania - a BMO Capital analyst upgraded Kroger stock to "outperform" and raised her price target to $60 that translates to an over 10% upside from here. Bania told clients in her recent research note:

BMO analyst is convinced that KR shares are well positioned with or without the Albertsons acquisition. In fact, she currently sees only a 30% chance of a deal while a 70% probability of a no deal.