Empire Company Limited (TSE:EMP.A) Receives Average Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Shares of Empire Company Limited (TSE:EMP.A) have earned a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the six analysts that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat reports. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and three have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price objective among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is C$53.83.

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on EMP.A shares. National Bankshares dropped their price target on Empire from C$58.00 to C$54.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, December 12th. Scotiabank lowered their price target on shares of Empire from C$57.00 to C$52.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, December 12th. CIBC lowered their price objective on Empire from C$59.00 to C$53.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, December 12th. Desjardins lowered their target price on Empire from C$60.00 to C$53.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, December 12th. Finally, TD Securities decreased their target price on shares of Empire from C$58.00 to C$50.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, December 12th.

Empire Trading Up 0.6%

TSE EMP.A opened at C$47.20 on Tuesday. The business’s fifty day moving average is C$49.36 and its 200-day moving average is C$51.50. Empire has a one year low of C$40.33 and a one year high of C$58.32. The stock has a market capitalization of C$10.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.00, a PEG ratio of 16.20 and a beta of 0.03. 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 (TSE:EMP.A) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, December 11th. The company reported C$0.69 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$8 billion during the quarter. Equities research analysts predict that Empire will post 2.9581227 EPS for the current year.

Empire Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 31st were paid a dividend of $0.22 per share. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, October 15th. Empire’s payout ratio is presently 28.47%.

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. 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.