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

Empire Company Limited (TSE:EMP.A) has been given an average rating of “Hold” by the eight analysts that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 12-month price target among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is C$55.00.

EMP.A has been the subject of several analyst reports. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce boosted their target price on Empire from C$54.00 to C$58.00 and gave the stock an “outperformer” rating in a research report on Friday, June 19th. Desjardins lifted their price objective on shares of Empire from C$53.00 to C$56.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Sunday, June 21st. National Bank Financial boosted their price objective on shares of Empire from C$54.00 to C$55.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Monday, June 15th. BMO Capital Markets upgraded shares of Empire from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a C$58.00 target price on the stock in a report on Monday, July 20th. Finally, TD lifted their price target on shares of Empire from C$50.00 to C$53.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, June 19th.

Empire Stock Performance

EMP.A stock opened at C$48.16 on Wednesday. The business’s fifty day moving average is C$49.72 and its 200-day moving average is C$48.86. The company has a quick ratio of 0.29, a current ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 135.51. The company has a market cap of C$10.78 billion, a P/E ratio of 56.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 16.20 and a beta of -0.20. Empire has a twelve month low of C$43.81 and a twelve month high of C$54.50.

Empire (TSE:EMP.A) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, June 18th. The company reported C$0.94 EPS for the quarter. The business had revenue of C$7.81 billion during the quarter. Empire had a return on equity of 12.94% and a net margin of 2.18%. Equities research analysts forecast that Empire will post 2.9581227 EPS for the current year.

Empire Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, July 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, July 31st were issued a dividend of $0.2425 per share. This is a boost from Empire’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.22. This represents a $0.97 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.0%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, July 15th. Empire’s dividend payout ratio is presently 102.33%.

Empire Company Profile

Empire Company Limited (TSX: EMP.A) is a Canadian company headquartered in Stellarton, Nova Scotia. Empire’s key businesses are food retailing, through wholly-owned subsidiary Sobeys Inc, and related real estate. With approximately $32 billion in annual sales and $17 billion in assets, Empire and its subsidiaries, franchisees and affiliates employ approximately 130,000 people. Additional financial information relating to Empire, including the Company’s Annual Information Form, can be found on the Company’s website at www.empireco.ca or on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca.