KROGER CO

KR · Consumer Discretionary · FY2026 filings · Shallow moat ·

Doesn't clear the bar

Shallow moat

The four filters

Pricing power42

Median gross margin 22.4% over 2y, very stable.

Returns on capital58

Median ROIC 11.8%, above the 9% hurdle in 80% of years.

Balance-sheet safety67

Net debt/EBITDA 2.4x, no material interest expense disclosed.

Capital discipline40

Owner earnings -7.1%/yr, share count shrinking (buybacks).

Margin of safety

Above valueOn sale

No price data

Owner earnings (normalized): $2.2B
Est. intrinsic value / share: —
Recent price: $58.82
Discount to value: No price data

Conservative model: 9% discount rate, 0% assumed growth (capped at 4%), maintenance capex ≈ min(capex, D&A).

20 years of fundamentals

The business, in plain English

Across the filed record, revenue grew from $70.3B (FY2008) to $147.6B (FY2026) — about 4.2% a year compounded over 18 years.

It earned 8.7% on invested capital in FY2026, with a median of 12.0% across 19 filed years. The Returns on Capital filter above scores it 58/100.

The balance sheet carried $15.9B of total debt in FY2026 against $1.0B of owner earnings — roughly 15.6 years of owner earnings to retire it all. Balance-Sheet Safety scores it 67/100.

The share count fell 5.2% between FY2009 and FY2025 — management has been retiring shares, which concentrates each remaining owner's claim. Capital Discipline scores it 40/100.

Put together: Balance-Sheet Safety is the strongest of the four filters (67/100) and Capital Discipline the weakest (40/100), which is how KR lands at 51/100 — a Shallow moat.

This breakdown is generated from the filed numbers and sub-scores above — no outside narrative, no estimates. Where a filing doesn’t disclose an input, the sentence that would need it is omitted instead of guessed.

RevenueSales, as filed$147.6B FY2026

Gross marginRevenue kept after cost of goods22.4% FY2018

Return on invested capitalOperating profit on the capital employed8.7% FY2026

Owner earningsCash an owner could take out$1.0B FY2026

Gaps in a line mean that item isn’t in KR’s filings for that year — the series is never interpolated or estimated. The Table view lists every filed value, including operating and net margins, total debt, and share count.

Moat Score history

Moat Score over time · 3 readings since 2026-07-17

Scores are logged append-only and never overwritten — this record can't be backfilled, which is exactly why it's worth keeping.

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Scored from primary SEC filings via the public methodology. Educational only — not a recommendation to buy or sell KR. See the disclaimer.