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 rating of “Hold” from the eight ratings firms that are presently covering the firm, Marketbeat.com reports. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 1-year price objective among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is C$55.00.

EMP.A has been the subject of several analyst reports. National Bank Financial boosted their target price on Empire from C$54.00 to C$55.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Monday, June 15th. Royal Bank Of Canada increased their price target 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 boosted their price objective on shares of Empire from C$53.00 to C$56.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Sunday, June 21st. TD upped their price objective on shares of Empire from C$50.00 to C$53.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, June 19th. Finally, Scotiabank lowered shares of Empire from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and set a C$52.00 target price on the stock. in a research note on Thursday, April 9th.

Empire Price Performance

TSE EMP.A opened at C$50.10 on Friday. Empire has a fifty-two week low of C$43.81 and a fifty-two week high of C$58.32. The stock’s 50-day moving average is C$49.14 and its two-hundred day moving average is C$48.29. The firm has a market cap of C$11.28 billion, a P/E ratio of 58.26, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 16.20 and a beta of -0.22. 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 released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, June 18th. The company reported C$0.94 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. The company had revenue of C$7.81 billion during the quarter. Empire had a return on equity of 12.94% and a net margin of 2.18%. On average, analysts anticipate that Empire will post 2.9581227 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Empire Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, July 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, July 31st will be issued a dividend of $0.2425 per share. This represents a $0.97 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.9%. This is a positive change from Empire’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.22. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, July 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.