Item 5. MARKET FOR REGISTRANT’S COMMON EQUITY, RELATED STOCKHOLDER MATTERS AND ISSUER PURCHASES OF EQUITY SECURITIES.

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Item 5. MARKET FOR REGISTRANT’S COMMON EQUITY, RELATED STOCKHOLDER MATTERS AND ISSUER PURCHASES OF EQUITY SECURITIES.

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Our common stock is listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “KR.” As of March 23, 2022, there were 25,466 shareholders of record.

During 2021, we paid two quarterly cash dividends of $0.18 per share and two quarterly cash dividends of $0.21 per share. During 2020, we paid two quarterly cash dividends of $0.16 per share and two quarterly cash dividends of $0.18 per share. On March 1, 2022, we paid a quarterly cash dividend of $0.21 per share. On March 10, 2022, we announced that our Board of Directors declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.21 per share, payable on June 1, 2022, to shareholders of record at the close of business on May 13, 2022. We currently expect to continue to pay comparable cash dividends on a quarterly basis, that will increase over time, depending on our earnings and other factors, including approval by our Board.

For information on securities authorized for issuance under our existing equity compensation plans, see Item 12 under the heading “Security Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners and Management and Related Stockholder Matters.”

PERFORMANCE GRAPH

Set forth below is a line graph comparing the five-year cumulative total shareholder return on our common shares, based on the market price of the common shares and assuming reinvestment of dividends, with the cumulative total return of companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Stock Index and a peer group composed of food and drug companies.

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	Base	INDEXED RETURNS
	Period	Years Ending
Company Name/Index	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021
The Kroger Co.	100	89.60	87.34	85.54	112.22	144.28
S&P 500 Index	100	122.83	122.76	149.23	174.97	211.72
Peer Group	100	129.19	125.47	151.40	186.24	219.91

Kroger’s fiscal year ends on the Saturday closest to January 31.

Data supplied by Standard & Poor’s.

The foregoing Performance Graph will not be deemed incorporated by reference into any other filing, absent an express reference thereto.

Total assumes $100 invested on January 28, 2017, in The Kroger Co., S&P 500 Index, and the Peer Group, with reinvestment of dividends.

** The Peer Group consists of Albertsons Companies, Inc. (included from June 26, 2020 when it began trading), Costco Wholesale Corp., CVS Health Corporation, Koninklijke Ahold Delhaize N.V., Supervalu Inc. (included through October 19, 2018 when it was acquired by United Natural Foods), Target Corp., Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc., Walmart Inc., Whole Foods Market Inc. (included through August 28, 2017 when it was acquired by Amazon.com, Inc.).

The following table presents information on our purchases of our common shares during the fourth quarter of 2021:

ISSUER PURCHASES OF EQUITY SECURITIES


					Approximate Dollar
					Value of Shares
				Total Number of	that May Yet Be
				Shares Purchased	Purchased Under
	Total Number	Average		as Part of Publicly	the Plans or
	of Shares	Price Paid Per		Announced Plans	Programs(4)
Period(1)	Purchased(2)	Share(2)		or Programs(3)	(in millions)
First four weeks
November 7, 2021 to December 4, 2021	2,710,844	$	42.15	2,710,600	$	387
Second four weeks
December 5, 2021 to January 1, 2022	6,239,527	$	44.64	6,220,863	$	140
Third four weeks
January 2, 2022 to January 29, 2022	4,368,946	$	47.28	4,368,946	$	821
Total	13,319,317	$	45.00	13,300,409	$	821

(1)	The reported periods conform to our fiscal calendar composed of thirteen 28-day periods. The fourth quarter of 2021 contained three 28-day periods.

(2)

Includes (i) shares repurchased under the June 2021 Repurchase Program and the December 2021 Repurchase Program described below in (4), (ii) shares repurchased under a program announced on December 6, 1999 to repurchase common shares to reduce dilution resulting from our employee stock option and long-term incentive plans, under which repurchases are limited to proceeds received from exercises of stock options and the tax benefits associated therewith (“1999 Repurchase Program”) and (iii) 18,908 shares that were surrendered to the Company by participants under our long-term incentive plans to pay for taxes on restricted stock awards.

(3)	Represents shares repurchased under the June 2021 Repurchase Program, the December 2021 Repurchase Program and the 1999 Repurchase Program.

(4)

On June 16, 2021, our Board of Directors approved a $1.0 billion share repurchase program to reacquire shares via open market purchase or privately negotiated transactions, block trades, or pursuant to trades intending to comply with Rule 10b5-1 under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “June 2021 Repurchase Program”). On December 30, 2021, our Board of Directors approved a $1.0 billion share repurchase program to reacquire shares via open market purchase or privately negotiated transactions, block trades, or pursuant to trades intending to comply with Rule 10b5-1 under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “December 2021 Repurchase Program”). The December 2021 Repurchase Program authorization replaced the existing June 2021 Repurchase Program. The amounts shown in this column reflect the amount remaining under the June 2021 Repurchase Program or the December 2021 Repurchase Program as of the specified period end dates. Amounts available under the 1999 Repurchase Program are dependent upon option exercise activity. The December 2021 Repurchase Program and the 1999 Repurchase Program do not have an expiration date but may be suspended or terminated by our Board of Directors at any time.

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