Empire (TSE:EMP.A) Upgraded at BMO Capital Markets

BMO Capital Markets upgraded shares of Empire (TSE:EMP.A) from a market perform rating to an outperform rating in a research note released on Monday morning,BayStreet.CA reports. They currently have C$58.00 target price on the stock.

Several other brokerages have also recently issued reports 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 research report on Thursday, April 9th. Desjardins increased their price objective on shares of Empire from C$53.00 to C$56.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Sunday, June 21st. TD lifted their target price on shares of Empire from C$50.00 to C$53.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, June 19th. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce boosted their target price 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, Royal Bank Of Canada upped 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. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of C$55.00.

Empire Stock Performance

Shares of EMP.A stock opened at C$49.77 on Monday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of C$49.03 and a 200-day moving average of C$48.27. Empire has a 52 week low of C$43.81 and a 52 week high of C$58.32. The company has a market cap of C$11.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 57.87, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 16.20 and a beta of -0.22. The company has a quick ratio of 0.29, a current ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 135.51.

Empire (TSE:EMP.A) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 for the quarter. Empire had a net margin of 2.18% and a return on equity of 12.94%. On average, equities analysts forecast that Empire will post 2.9581227 earnings per share for the current year.

Empire Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, July 31st. Investors 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 boost from Empire’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.22. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, July 15th. Empire’s dividend payout ratio is 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.