Kroger Might Be Better Deal for Investors than Albertsons' IPO

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Albertsons rates attention from investors for its impending initial public offering. It's the second-largest supermarket chain in the country and will be the second-biggest IPO-- about $2 billion -- of the year. The offering has priced at $23 to $26 a share and the company will trade under the ticker symbol ABS.

But the grocery chain to watch and consider for investing is the supermarket sector's leader.

Kroger (KR - Get Report) dwarfs Albertsons in sales, earnings and market capitalization, among other financial measures. Albertsons is actually losing money. When looking at Kroger where it counts for investors -- stock return -- it has easily beaten all the major publicly traded grocers and the S&P 500 index for years. Kroger has outperformed the S&P 241% to 72% since 2010.

To be sure, Kroger's shares have had, like many stocks, some rough moments. Shares...