Empire Company Limited (TSE:EMP.A) Receives C$48.86 Consensus Target Price from Analysts

Empire Company Limited (TSE:EMP.A - Get Free Report) has been given an average rating of "Hold" by the seven analysts that are covering the firm, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating on the company. The average twelve-month target price among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is C$48.86.

Separately, Scotiabank upgraded Empire from a "sector perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and boosted their target price for the company from C$47.00 to C$49.00 in a research note on Friday, March 14th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Empire news, Senior Officer Matthew Reindel sold 767 shares of Empire stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of C$44.11, for a total value of C$33,832.37. Also, Senior Officer Simon Gagne sold 12,269 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of C$48.22, for a total transaction of C$591,611.18. Insiders have sold a total of 20,459 shares of company stock valued at $961,651 over the last 90 days. 2.18% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Empire Stock Up 0.4 %

EMP.A traded up C$0.19 during trading on Monday, reaching C$51.33. The company had a trading volume of 24,795 shares, compared to its average volume of 529,221. The business's fifty day moving average price is C$46.82 and its 200 day moving average price is C$43.93. 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 has a 12 month low of C$31.60 and a 12 month high of C$51.72. The company has a market cap of C$7.21 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.73, a PEG ratio of 16.20 and a beta of 0.48.

Empire Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 30th. Investors of record on Wednesday, April 30th were issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, April 15th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.56%. Empire's payout ratio is 29.20%.

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.