Empire Company Limited (TSE:EMP.A) Announces $0.22 Quarterly Dividend

Key Points

• Empire Company announced a C$0.22 quarterly dividend (about a 1.8% yield) with an ex-dividend date of April 15 and record/payment date of April 30.
• The stock is priced around C$48.94 with a market cap of C$11.09 billion, a high P/E of 73.0 and a heavy balance-sheet leverage (debt-to-equity ~135.5) alongside weak liquidity ratios (current ~0.79, quick ~0.29).
• Wall Street sentiment is muted — consensus rating is "Hold" with an average target of C$52.83 after recent downgrades and lowered price targets from major banks.

Empire Company Limited (TSE:EMP.A - Get Free Report) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, April 15th, TickerTech Dividends reports. Investors of record on Thursday, April 30th will be paid a dividend of 0.22 per share on Thursday, April 30th. This represents a c) dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 15th.

Empire Stock Performance

Empire stock opened at C$48.94 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of C$11.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 73.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 16.20 and a beta of -0.04. Empire has a 1 year low of C$43.81 and a 1 year high of C$58.32. The firm's 50 day moving average price is C$49.07 and its two-hundred day moving average price is C$48.69. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 135.51, a quick ratio of 0.29 and a current ratio of 0.79.

Empire (TSE:EMP.A - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 12th. The company reported C$0.72 EPS for the quarter. The company had revenue of C$7.89 billion during the quarter. Empire had a return on equity of 12.94% and a net margin of 2.18%. On average, research analysts predict that Empire will post 2.9581227 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the company. Scotiabank downgraded Empire from an "outperform" rating to a "sector perform" rating and set a C$52.00 target price for the company. in a report on Thursday. Royal Bank Of Canada reduced their price objective on shares of Empire from C$61.00 to C$55.00 and set a "sector perform" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, January 23rd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Empire has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of C$52.83.

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.

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