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

Empire Company Limited (TSE:EMP.A) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the seven ratings firms that are covering the firm, Marketbeat.com reports. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and three have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price target among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is C$48.86.

A number of research firms have weighed in on EMP.A. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on Empire from C$44.00 to C$48.00 in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Scotiabank upgraded Empire from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price target for the company from C$47.00 to C$49.00 in a research note on Friday. CIBC raised their price target on Empire from C$47.00 to C$55.00 in a research note on Friday, December 13th. TD Securities raised their price target on Empire from C$44.00 to C$48.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Desjardins raised their price target on Empire from C$47.00 to C$50.00 in a research note on Sunday, December 15th.

Insider Activity at Empire

In other news, Senior Officer Matthew Reindel sold 4,587 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of C$43.81, for a total transaction of C$200,956.47. Also, Senior Officer Simon Gagne sold 8,458 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of C$44.48, for a total value of C$376,211.84. 2.18% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Empire Stock Up 2.5 %

Shares of TSE EMP.A opened at C$43.48 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of C$6.11 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.87, a PEG ratio of 16.20 and a beta of 0.48. The company has a current ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 0.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 135.51. Empire has a 12-month low of C$31.45 and a 12-month high of C$46.77. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is C$43.40 and its 200-day simple moving average is C$41.80.

Empire Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 31st. Investors of record on Friday, January 31st were issued a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, January 15th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.84%. Empire’s dividend payout ratio is currently 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.