That total was lifted by $0.6 million of new debt, bringing overall cash flow to $4.7 billion. The biggest portion of that cash went to the business: Kroger invested $3 billion in capital improvements. And the remaining money was divided between dividend payments and stock buybacks, with a heavy bias toward share repurchases. Kroger spent $1.3 billion on its stock last year and just $340 million on dividends. That trend is holding so far this year. Kroger generated $1.8 billion of cash flow in the first quarter, which management directed mostly toward capital improvements ($900 million) followed by share repurchases ($585 million) while dividends ($91 million) were a distant third place. However, there are a few reasons to believe that share repurchases will slow down in the coming quarters. Changing priorities For one, Kroger told investors that they shouldn't expect much more in the way of buybacks this year.