Empire Company Limited to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.20 (TSE:EMP.A)

Empire Company Limited (TSE:EMP.A) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, January 15th,TickerTech Dividends reports. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 31st will be given a dividend of 0.20 per share on Friday, January 31st. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.83%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, January 15th.

Empire Stock Down 0.3 %

TSE:EMP.A opened at C$43.70 on Monday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of C$42.74 and a 200 day simple moving average of C$39.35. Empire has a one year low of C$31.45 and a one year high of C$46.77. The company has a market capitalization of C$6.14 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.95, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 16.20 and a beta of 0.48. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 135.51, a quick ratio of 0.29 and a current ratio of 0.79.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Empire news, Director Michael Bennett Medline sold 75,844 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of C$44.83, for a total transaction of C$3,400,086.52. Also, Senior Officer Douglas Bigler Nathanson sold 7,265 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of C$45.15, for a total transaction of C$328,014.75. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 96,154 shares of company stock valued at $4,305,270. 2.18% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have recently commented on EMP.A shares. TD Securities lifted their price target on shares of Empire from C$44.00 to C$48.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Scotiabank raised their price target on Empire from C$44.00 to C$47.00 in a report on Friday, December 13th. CIBC upped their price objective on shares of Empire from C$47.00 to C$55.00 in a report on Friday, December 13th. Desjardins raised their target price on shares of Empire from C$47.00 to C$50.00 in a research note on Sunday, December 15th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on shares of Empire from C$44.00 to C$48.00 in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of C$48.57.

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.