Barclays Maintains an 'Equalweight' on Kroger (KR); Proactively Reducing Pension Obligations
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Price: $56.69 -0.26%
Rating Summary:
16 Buy, 19 Hold, 4 Sell
Rating Trend:
Down
Today's Overall Ratings:
Up: 13 | Down: 14 | New: 11
Rating Summary:
16 Buy, 19 Hold, 4 Sell
Rating Trend:
Down
Today's Overall Ratings:
Up: 13 | Down: 14 | New: 11
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Barclays maintains an 'Equalweight' on Kroger (NYSE: KR) price target of $24.00.
Barclays analyst says, "KR announced that it had come to an agreement with 14 of its United Food and Commercial Worker (UFCW) union locals to consolidate four pension plans into one that will be managed directly by KR. Ratification has been completed for 11 of the 14 plans, and the others should be approved by December 21. The agreement has a 10-year term and specifies pension contributions for that period, agrees to a large one-time contribution in January ($413 million after tax), and commits KR to getting the new plan to a fully funded status by 2018. This agreement provides a number of benefits, most importantly to limit risk."
"As a result of this transaction, we are raising our FY12 EPS by $0.05 to $2.30. There will also be an estimated $0.73 one-time charge in 4Q11 related to the large contribution KR plans to make in January 2012, although we are excluding this from our operating EPS estimate so there is no change to our FY11 EPS of $2.00."
For an analyst ratings summary and ratings history on Kroger click here. For more ratings news on Kroger click here.
Shares of Kroger closed at $23.81 yesterday.
Barclays analyst says, "KR announced that it had come to an agreement with 14 of its United Food and Commercial Worker (UFCW) union locals to consolidate four pension plans into one that will be managed directly by KR. Ratification has been completed for 11 of the 14 plans, and the others should be approved by December 21. The agreement has a 10-year term and specifies pension contributions for that period, agrees to a large one-time contribution in January ($413 million after tax), and commits KR to getting the new plan to a fully funded status by 2018. This agreement provides a number of benefits, most importantly to limit risk."
"As a result of this transaction, we are raising our FY12 EPS by $0.05 to $2.30. There will also be an estimated $0.73 one-time charge in 4Q11 related to the large contribution KR plans to make in January 2012, although we are excluding this from our operating EPS estimate so there is no change to our FY11 EPS of $2.00."
For an analyst ratings summary and ratings history on Kroger click here. For more ratings news on Kroger click here.
Shares of Kroger closed at $23.81 yesterday.
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