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

Shares of Empire Company Limited (TSE:EMP.A) have received a consensus rating of “Hold” from the seven brokerages that are covering the stock, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating on the company. The average 1-year price target among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is C$48.57.

EMP.A has been the topic of several research reports. CIBC boosted their price target on Empire from C$47.00 to C$55.00 in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on Empire from C$42.00 to C$46.00 in a report on Tuesday, November 12th. Scotiabank upped their target price on Empire from C$44.00 to C$47.00 in a research note on Friday, December 13th. TD Securities lifted their price target on shares of Empire from C$44.00 to C$48.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Desjardins increased their price objective on shares of Empire from C$47.00 to C$50.00 in a research note on Sunday, December 15th.

Empire Stock Up 0.1 %

EMP.A stock opened at C$42.80 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 135.51, a current ratio of 0.79 and a quick ratio of 0.29. The company has a 50-day moving average of C$43.03 and a two-hundred day moving average of C$39.89. The stock has a market capitalization of C$6.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.62, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 16.20 and a beta of 0.48. Empire has a 52-week low of C$31.45 and a 52-week high of C$46.77.

Empire Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 31st will be given a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.87%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, January 15th. Empire’s payout ratio is 29.20%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Senior Officer Matthew Reindel sold 4,587 shares of Empire stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of C$43.81, for a total transaction of C$200,956.47. Also, Senior Officer Douglas Bigler Nathanson sold 7,265 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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. Insiders sold a total of 96,154 shares of company stock valued at $4,305,270 over the last three months. Company insiders own 2.18% of the company’s stock.

Empire Company Profile

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.