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

Empire Company Limited (TSE:EMP.A) declared a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, April 15th, TickerTech Dividends reports. Investors of record on Wednesday, April 30th will be paid a dividend of 0.20 per share on Wednesday, April 30th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.72%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 15th.

Empire Price Performance

EMP.A stock opened at C$46.40 on Friday. The company has a market cap of C$6.52 billion, a PE ratio of 16.93, a price-to-earnings-growth 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. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of C$44.88 and a two-hundred day moving average price of C$43.07. Empire has a 12-month low of C$31.50 and a 12-month high of C$49.28.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently issued reports on EMP.A. Scotiabank raised shares of Empire from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their target price for the stock from C$47.00 to C$49.00 in a research report on Friday, March 14th. Desjardins boosted their price objective on shares of Empire from C$47.00 to C$50.00 in a research note on Sunday, December 15th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of C$48.86.

Insider Buying and Selling at Empire

In other news, Senior Officer Matthew Reindel sold 767 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of C$44.11, for a total transaction of C$33,832.37. Also, Senior Officer Pierre St-Laurent sold 5,354 shares of Empire stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of C$44.96, for a total value of C$240,715.84. Insiders sold 20,459 shares of company stock valued at $961,651 over the last 90 days. 2.18% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.