4 Biggest Earnings Reports You Must Watch Next Week

After flirting with the 200-day moving average in June, Kroger's stock has slumped into a bearish trend. The 90- and 200-day moving averages are both trending lower and the suspension of Supervalu's dividend in July sent Kroger's shares lower in sympathy. The market clearly overacted after the Supervalue dividend cut, but until Kroger is able to trade above $23, the bearish trend will likely continue.

Is Kroger at risk for lowering or halting its dividend? It doesn't appear so at this time. Cash flow and profitability easily support the current 2.1% yield (46 cents). The payout is less than half the company's profits. In fact, over the last five years, the dividend has grown by an average of 17.1% per year. The last increase came last year.

Kroger isn't that cheap to me. The mean fiscal-year estimate price-to-earnings ratio is 9.3, based on earnings of $2.38 per share this year. Historically an earnings multiple under 10 is very cheap, especially for a dividend payer, but with companies like Wal-Mart and Target trading at a premium of only 30%, it's not easy to make the case to buy Kroger over the dominant players without fully understanding the space.

Shareholders receive 46 cents annually in dividend payments. The yield based on a recent price is 2.07%. Over the last five years, the dividend has grown by an impressive average of 17% per year.

Kroger's short interest based on the float is small at 2.3%.

Background: Kroger Company is one of the larger grocery retailers (about 2,400 stores in 31 states) in the United States. The company also manufactures and processes food for sale by its supermarkets. Kroger trades a recent average of 4.2 million shares per day with a marketcap of $12.1 billion.

KR Earnings Per Share data by YCharts
PAY data by YCharts

VeriFone Systems (PAY)

52-Week High: $55.89

52-Week Low: $30.10

Book Value: $11.54

Price-To-Book: 2.88