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

Shares of Empire Company Limited (TSE:EMP.A) have been assigned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the six research firms that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating on the company. The average 1 year price target among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is C$52.83.

EMP.A has been the subject of a number of research reports. Royal Bank Of Canada reduced their price target on shares of Empire from C$61.00 to C$55.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, January 23rd. Scotiabank downgraded shares of Empire from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and set a C$52.00 price target for the company. in a report on Thursday, April 9th.

Empire Price Performance

Shares of Empire stock opened at C$46.54 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 135.51, a current ratio of 0.79 and a quick ratio of 0.29. Empire has a fifty-two week low of C$43.81 and a fifty-two week high of C$58.32. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of C$48.54 and a two-hundred day moving average price of C$48.47. The company has a market cap of C$10.55 billion, a PE ratio of 69.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 16.20 and a beta of -0.04.

Empire (TSE:EMP.A) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 12th. The company reported C$0.72 earnings per share for the quarter. Empire had a net margin of 2.18% and a return on equity of 12.94%. The firm had revenue of C$7.89 billion during the quarter. Analysts expect that Empire will post 2.9581227 EPS for the current year.

Empire Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, April 30th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 30th were issued a dividend of $0.22 per share. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, April 15th. Empire’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 128.36%.

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.