Insider Selling: Empire Company Limited (TSE:EMP.A) Senior Officer Sells 5,354 Shares of Stock

Empire Company Limited (TSE:EMP.A) Senior Officer Pierre St-Laurent sold 5,354 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of C$44.96, for a total transaction of C$240,715.84.

Empire Trading Down 1.2 %

Shares of EMP.A opened at C$45.89 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 135.51, a quick ratio of 0.29 and a current ratio of 0.79. The company has a market cap of C$6.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.75, a PEG ratio of 16.20 and a beta of 0.48. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of C$43.71 and a two-hundred day moving average price of C$42.23. Empire Company Limited has a 52-week low of C$31.45 and a 52-week high of C$46.91.

Empire Announces Dividend

The firm 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 of this dividend was Wednesday, January 15th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.74%. Empire’s dividend payout ratio is 29.20%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently weighed in on EMP.A. TD Securities upped their target price 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. CIBC upped their price objective on Empire from C$47.00 to C$55.00 in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Scotiabank upgraded Empire from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their target price for the stock from C$47.00 to C$49.00 in a research report on Friday, March 14th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on Empire from C$44.00 to C$48.00 in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Desjardins boosted their target price on shares of Empire from C$47.00 to C$50.00 in a research note on Sunday, December 15th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of C$48.86.

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.