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

Empire Company Limited (TSE:EMP.A) has been assigned a consensus rating of “Hold” from the seven analysts that are covering the firm, MarketBeat reports. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two 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$54.57.

A number of brokerages have commented on EMP.A. Scotiabank cut Empire from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and set a C$52.00 target price on the stock. in a report on Thursday, April 9th. Royal Bank Of Canada increased their target price on Empire from C$55.00 to C$58.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday, June 19th. Desjardins increased their price target on Empire from C$53.00 to C$56.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Sunday, June 21st. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce increased their price target on Empire from C$54.00 to C$58.00 and gave the stock an “outperformer” rating in a research note on Friday, June 19th. Finally, National Bank Financial increased their price target on Empire from C$54.00 to C$55.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Monday, June 15th.

Empire Price Performance

Shares of TSE:EMP.A opened at C$50.02 on Tuesday. The business’s fifty day moving average price is C$48.16 and its two-hundred day moving average price is C$48.06. The stock has a market cap of C$11.26 billion, a PE ratio of 58.16, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 16.20 and a beta of -0.20. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 135.51, a quick ratio of 0.29 and a current ratio of 0.79. Empire has a one year low of C$43.81 and a one year high of C$58.32.

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

Empire Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, April 30th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 30th were paid a dividend of $0.22 per share. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, April 15th. Empire’s dividend payout ratio is currently 102.33%.

Empire Company Profile

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. The company’s investment and other operations segment include the investment in Crombie REIT, which is an open-ended Canadian real estate investment trust, as well as the Genstar Development Partnership.