Empire Company Limited (TSE:EMP.A) Given Average Rating of “Hold” by Brokerages

Empire Company Limited (TSE:EMP.A) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the seven ratings firms that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and three have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month price objective among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is C$48.57.

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on EMP.A. TD Securities raised their price objective on Empire from C$44.00 to C$48.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. CIBC raised their price target on Empire from C$47.00 to C$55.00 in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Scotiabank upped their price objective on Empire from C$44.00 to C$47.00 in a research note on Friday, December 13th. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on shares of Empire from C$44.00 to C$48.00 in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Desjardins boosted their target price on shares of Empire from C$47.00 to C$50.00 in a report on Sunday, December 15th.

Insider Activity at Empire

In other news, Senior Officer Douglas Bigler Nathanson sold 7,265 shares of Empire stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of C$45.15, for a total value of C$328,014.75. Also, Director Michael Bennett Medline sold 75,844 shares of Empire stock in a transaction on Friday, December 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of C$44.83, for a total value of C$3,400,086.52. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 96,154 shares of company stock worth $4,305,270. Insiders own 2.18% of the company’s stock.

Empire Stock Up 0.1 %

Empire stock opened at C$42.80 on Friday. 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 1-year low of C$31.45 and a 1-year high of C$46.77. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of C$43.03 and a 200 day simple moving average of C$39.89. The company has a market cap of C$6.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.62, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 16.20 and a beta of 0.48.

Empire Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, January 15th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.87%. Empire’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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.