Empire Company Limited (TSE:EMP.A) Stock Has Average Price Target of C$53.67

Shares of Empire Company Limited (TSE:EMP.A) have been given a consensus rating of “Hold” by the nine ratings firms that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and three have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year target price among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is C$53.67.

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on EMP.A. TD lowered their target price on shares of Empire from C$53.00 to C$52.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, September 11th. BMO Capital Markets raised shares of Empire from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a C$58.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Monday, July 20th. Scotia decreased their price target on Empire from C$50.00 to C$48.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, September 11th. National Bank Financial decreased their price target on Empire from C$56.00 to C$54.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, September 11th. Finally, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce lifted their price objective 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.

Empire Trading Up 0.5%

EMP.A opened at C$49.06 on Thursday. Empire has a fifty-two week low of C$43.81 and a fifty-two week high of C$52.64. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 135.51, a current ratio of 0.79 and a quick ratio of 0.29. The firm has a market capitalization of C$10.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 49.56, a PEG ratio of 16.20 and a beta of -0.21. The company’s 50 day moving average price is C$48.08 and its two-hundred day moving average price is C$48.57.

Empire (TSE:EMP.A) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, September 10th. The company reported C$1.04 EPS for the quarter. Empire had a return on equity of 12.94% and a net margin of 2.18%. The firm had revenue of C$8.47 billion for the quarter. As a group, research analysts predict that Empire will post 2.96 earnings per share for the current year.

Empire Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 30th. Investors of record on Friday, October 30th will be paid a dividend of $0.2425 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 15th. This represents a $0.97 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.0%. Empire’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 91.16%.

About Empire

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.