Kroger's Relative Strength (RS) Rating climbed to 83 Monday, up from 80 last week. Sales and profits for the nation's largest independent grocery chain pivoted higher last quarter, and that's reflected in its stock price.
Highly rated Kroger stock is up 32% since mid-November and has more than doubled from an intraday low 20.70 in late July 2019. It's among the top 5 in its industry group.
Kroger Stock Rising As It Fights Competition
Kroger operates under 28 different brands including its namesake grocery stores as well as Ralph's, Dillons, Food-4-Less, FredMeyer and others.
In recent years Kroger faced rising competition from e-commerce behemoth Amazon along with the nation's largest retail chain Walmart and Costco. Additionally, German supermarket chain Aldi bought popular U.S. chain Trader Joe's and has opened Aldi's discount grocery outlets around the U.S.
But Kroger ramped up delivery services and lowered prices on some products to compete. The upgraded 83 Relative Strength Rating for Kroger stock shows it outperformed 83% of all stocks in IBD's database for price performance over the past year. Stocks that go on to make the biggest gains tend to have an 80 or higher RS Rating as they launch their biggest climbs.
Looking For The Best Stocks To Buy And Watch? Start Here
Kroger is trying to complete a flat base with a 58.34 buy point. See if the stock can clear the breakout price in volume at least 40% above average. Monday afternoon Kroger stock traded about three points below the buy point.
Are Last Quarter's Strong Results A Trend?
In terms of top and bottom line numbers, Kroger has posted rising EPS growth over the last three quarters. Revenue growth has also moved higher over the same time frame. Last quarter EPS grew 15% to $1.14 on a 6% rise in sales to $37.1 billion.
That was a turnaround after weak earnings growth and spotty revenue growth last year. It remains to be seen whether the supermarket chain can continue, or accelerate, on the fast growth track.
Kroger stock earns the No. 3 rank among its peers in the 12-stock Retail-Super/Mini Markets industry group. Natural foods focused Sprouts Farmers Market is the top-ranked stock in the group. Natural Grocers is No. 2.
IBD's Relative Strength Rating identifies market leadership by showing how a stock's price movement over the last 52 weeks measures up against that of the other stocks in our database.
Please follow James DeTar on X, formerly known as Twitter, @JimDeTar
RELATED:
Get Full Access To IBD Stock Lists And Ratings
IBD Stock Rating Upgrades: Rising Relative Strength
How Relative Strength Line Can Help You Judge A Stock
Ready To Grow Your Investing Skills? Join An IBD Meetup Group!
Identify Bases And Buy Points With Pattern Recognition From MarketSurge
