Empire Company Limited (TSE:EMP.A) Receives Consensus Rating of “Hold” from Analysts

Empire Company Limited (TSE:EMP.A) has earned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the seven research firms that are currently covering the stock, MarketBeat reports. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and three have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 12-month price objective among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is C$48.57.

Several research firms recently commented on EMP.A. CIBC raised their target price on Empire from C$47.00 to C$55.00 in a research note on Friday, December 13th. TD Securities boosted their price target on shares of Empire from C$44.00 to C$48.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on shares of Empire from C$44.00 to C$48.00 in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on shares of Empire from C$42.00 to C$46.00 in a report on Tuesday, November 12th. Finally, Scotiabank boosted their target price on Empire from C$44.00 to C$47.00 in a research note on Friday, December 13th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Michael Bennett Medline sold 75,844 shares of Empire stock in a transaction on Friday, December 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of C$44.83, for a total transaction of C$3,400,086.52. Also, Senior Officer Matthew Reindel sold 4,587 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of C$43.81, for a total value of C$200,956.47. Insiders have sold 96,154 shares of company stock worth $4,305,270 in the last three months. 2.18% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Empire Price Performance

Empire stock opened at C$45.05 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of C$6.33 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.44, a P/E/G ratio of 16.20 and a beta of 0.48. The stock’s 50 day moving average is C$43.41 and its 200 day moving average is C$41.55. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 135.51, a current ratio of 0.79 and a quick ratio of 0.29. Empire has a one year low of C$31.45 and a one year high of C$46.77.

Empire Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 31st were issued a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.78%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, January 15th. Empire’s payout ratio is 29.20%.

About Empire

Empire Co Ltd key businesses are food retailing, investments, and other operations. The food retailing division operates through Empire’s subsidiary Sobeys and represents nearly all of the company’s income. This segment owns, affiliates, or franchises more than 1,500 stores in 10 provinces, under retail banners including Sobeys, Safeway, IGA, Foodland, FreshCo, Thrifty Foods, Lawton’s Drug Stores, and multiple retail fuel locations.