KROGER CO

KRdata completeness 100%19 fiscal years on file
The thesis, from the filings

KROGER CO earns about 7% on invested capital, below its ~9% cost of capital, and has bought back 13% of its shares over 5 years — no moat visible in the numbers. The estimate methods put fair value between $14.79 and $34.24 a share.Whether it’s worth owning at today’s price is the last question — and yours to answer, below.

i. The business — what you’d actually own
FigureFY 2022FY 2023FY 2024FY 2025FY 2026
Revenue$137.9B1$148.3B2$150B3$147.1B3$147.6B3
Net income$1.66B4$2.24B5$2.16B6$2.67B6$1.02B6
Operating cash flow$6.19B7$4.5B8$6.79B9$5.79B9$7.31B9
Capital expenditure$2.61B10$3.08B11$3.9B12$4.02B12$3.86B12
Free cash flow (derived)$3.58B7$1.42B8$2.88B9$1.78B9$3.46B9
Total debt$23.5B13$22.6B14$20.4B15$31.8B16$31.8B16
Cash & equivalents$1.82B17$1.02B18$1.88B19$3.96B20$3.33B20
Diluted shares754.0M727.0M725.0M720.0M655.0M

Superscripts are receipts. Each links to the SEC filing the number came from (full list at the bottom).

ii. Your slice — ownership made literal
If you owned
shares
Net assets behind them
$90.49
your share of equity
Profit it earned you last year
$15.51
Free cash flow it threw off
$52.76
Debt you’d be carrying
$484.73

10 shares is a claim on $90.49 of net worth that earned you $15.51 and generated $52.76 of cash last year, against $484.73 of debt.

iii. Is this a good business?
Moat signal · return on invested capital
7% avg · 5y
FY22 7%FY23 8%FY24 8%FY25 7%FY26 3%

It earned about 7% on invested capital against a ~9% cost of capital — below the cost of funding. The numbers show no moat.

seeing a moat in the numbers →
Management signal · capital allocation
−13% shares · 5y

Share count is down 13% over 5 years — management has been buying back stock, quietly handing owners a bigger slice. Total debt has risen 35% over the same window.

reading capital allocation →

Signals, not verdicts — read from the filings above. Numbers don’t prove a moat; they show its footprint. You decide.

iv. What it’s worth — engine v0.1.0

The 3 estimate methods that apply put fair value between $14.79 and $34.24 a share. They rest on different assumptions, so where they diverge is the story; the Graham Number is a stricter floor, not a target.

DCF · Growth Exit 10Y
$14.79
assumptions (10)
  • riskFreeRate4.7%
  • equityRiskPremium5.0%
  • beta100.0%
  • equityWeight85.0%
  • costOfDebtSpread1.5%
  • taxRate21.0%
  • terminalGrowth2.5%
  • projectionYears10
  • fcfGrowth0.0%
  • fcfBase$2.88B
DCF · Growth Exit 5Y
$19.53
assumptions (10)
  • riskFreeRate4.7%
  • equityRiskPremium5.0%
  • beta100.0%
  • equityWeight85.0%
  • costOfDebtSpread1.5%
  • taxRate21.0%
  • terminalGrowth2.5%
  • projectionYears5
  • fcfGrowth0.0%
  • fcfBase$2.88B
Earnings Power Value
$34.24
assumptions (8)
  • riskFreeRate4.7%
  • equityRiskPremium5.0%
  • beta100.0%
  • equityWeight85.0%
  • costOfDebtSpread1.5%
  • taxRate21.0%
  • normalizedEarnings$2.16B
  • growthAssumed0.0%
Graham Number
$17.71
assumptions (1)
  • grahamMultiplier2250.0%

Different models answer different questions — which to trust when →

v. The price question — last, on purpose
Is today’s price fair?
See live price ↗
Type a price. The ledger answers.
Or set your own belief
FCF growth, next 5 years0.0%
Discount rate (WACC)8.93%
Terminal growth2.5%
At your growth, a share is worth $19.53
The three cases
Bear0.0%$19.53
Base0.0%$19.53
Bull5.0%$34.75

Bear/base/bull growth = 0% / filed history / history + 5pp. Type a price to see the return each case implies.

Default growth 0.0%= this company’s own filed history (median-to-median FCF CAGR, clamped 0–20%). Your adjustments are recorded anonymously. They become the “what do owners actually believe” dataset.

Sources — the receipts
  1. 10-K · period ending 2022-01-29 · accession 0001558370-24-004603 (RevenueFromContractWithCustomerExcludingAssessedTax)
  2. 10-K · period ending 2023-01-28 · accession 0001558370-25-004267 (RevenueFromContractWithCustomerExcludingAssessedTax)
  3. 10-K · period ending 2024-02-03 · accession 0001104659-26-037723 (RevenueFromContractWithCustomerExcludingAssessedTax)
  4. 10-K · period ending 2022-01-29 · accession 0001558370-24-004603 (NetIncomeLoss)
  5. 10-K · period ending 2023-01-28 · accession 0001558370-25-004267 (NetIncomeLoss)
  6. 10-K · period ending 2024-02-03 · accession 0001104659-26-037723 (NetIncomeLoss)
  7. 10-K · period ending 2022-01-29 · accession 0001558370-24-004603 (NetCashProvidedByUsedInOperatingActivities)
  8. 10-K · period ending 2023-01-28 · accession 0001558370-25-004267 (NetCashProvidedByUsedInOperatingActivities)
  9. 10-K · period ending 2024-02-03 · accession 0001104659-26-037723 (NetCashProvidedByUsedInOperatingActivities)
  10. 10-K · period ending 2022-01-29 · accession 0001558370-24-004603 (PaymentsToAcquireProductiveAssets)
  11. 10-K · period ending 2023-01-28 · accession 0001558370-25-004267 (PaymentsToAcquireProductiveAssets)
  12. 10-K · period ending 2024-02-03 · accession 0001104659-26-037723 (PaymentsToAcquireProductiveAssets)
  13. 10-K · period ending 2022-01-29 · accession 0001558370-23-004767 (LongTermDebtNoncurrent)
  14. 10-K · period ending 2023-01-28 · accession 0001558370-24-004603 (LongTermDebtNoncurrent)
  15. 10-K · period ending 2024-02-03 · accession 0001558370-25-004267 (LongTermDebtNoncurrent)
  16. 10-K · period ending 2025-02-01 · accession 0001104659-26-037723 (LongTermDebtNoncurrent)
  17. 10-K · period ending 2022-01-29 · accession 0001558370-23-004767 (CashAndCashEquivalentsAtCarryingValue)
  18. 10-K · period ending 2023-01-28 · accession 0001558370-24-004603 (CashAndCashEquivalentsAtCarryingValue)
  19. 10-K · period ending 2024-02-03 · accession 0001558370-25-004267 (CashAndCashEquivalentsAtCarryingValue)
  20. 10-K · period ending 2025-02-01 · accession 0001104659-26-037723 (CashAndCashEquivalentsAtCarryingValue)