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 27, 2024, there were 24,275 shareholders of record.

During 2023, we paid two quarterly cash dividends of $0.26 per share and two quarterly cash dividends of $0.29 per share. During 2022, we paid two quarterly cash dividends of $0.21 per share and two quarterly cash dividends of $0.26 per share. On March 1, 2024, we paid a quarterly cash dividend of $0.29 per share. On March 14, 2024, we announced that our Board of Directors declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.29 per share, payable on June 1, 2024, to shareholders of record at the close of business on May 15, 2024. 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.


	Base	INDEXED RETURNS
	Period	Years Ending
Company Name/Index	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023
The Kroger Co.	100	97.94	128.49	165.19	174.57	183.07
S&P 500 Index	100	121.56	142.53	172.46	161.03	199.42
Peer Group	100	120.67	148.43	175.27	169.86	197.90

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 February 2, 2019, 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 Corporation, CVS Health Corporation, Koninklijke Ahold Delhaize N.V., Target Corp., Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. and Walmart Inc.

The following table presents information on our purchases of our common shares during the fourth quarter of 2023:

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 period - four weeks
November 5, 2023 to December 2, 2023	7,093	$	44.09	6,900	$	1,000
Second period - four weeks
December 3, 2023 to December 30, 2023	82,059	$	44.75	64,200	$	1,000
Third period - five weeks
December 31, 2023 to February 3, 2024	96,000	$	46.07	96,000	$	1,000
Total	185,152	$	45.41	167,100	$	1,000

(1)	The fourth quarter of 2023 contained two 28-day periods and one 35-day period.

(2)

Includes (i) 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 (ii) 18,052 shares that were surrendered to Kroger by participants under our long-term incentive plans to pay for taxes on restricted stock awards.

(3)	Represents shares repurchased under the 1999 Repurchase Program.

(4)

On September 9, 2022, 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 “September 2022 Repurchase Program”). The amounts shown in this column reflect the amount remaining under the September 2022 Repurchase Program as of the specified period end dates. Amounts available under the 1999 Repurchase Program are dependent upon option exercise activity. The September 2022 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. No shares have been repurchased under the September 2022 authorization. During the third quarter of 2022, we paused our share repurchase program to prioritize de-leveraging following the proposed merger with Albertsons.

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