Empire Company Limited (TSE:EMP.A) Receives Consensus Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Empire Company Limited (TSE:EMP.A) has been assigned an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from the six ratings firms that are covering the stock, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating on the company. The average 1-year target price among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is C$53.83.

EMP.A has been the topic of several research reports. National Bankshares lowered their price target on shares of Empire from C$58.00 to C$54.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, December 12th. TD Securities reduced their price objective on shares of Empire from C$58.00 to C$50.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, December 12th. Scotiabank dropped their target price on Empire from C$57.00 to C$52.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, December 12th. CIBC cut their price target on Empire from C$59.00 to C$53.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, December 12th. Finally, Desjardins decreased their price objective on Empire from C$60.00 to C$53.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, December 12th.

Empire Stock Down 0.5%

Shares of TSE EMP.A opened at C$47.29 on Friday. 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 stock has a market capitalization of C$10.88 billion, a PE ratio of 16.03, a P/E/G ratio of 16.20 and a beta of 0.08. Empire has a one year low of C$40.33 and a one year high of C$58.32. The business’s fifty day moving average price is C$49.57 and its 200-day moving average price is C$52.12.

Empire (TSE:EMP.A) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 11th. The company reported C$0.69 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. The business had revenue of C$8 billion for the quarter. Empire had a return on equity of 12.94% and a net margin of 2.18%. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Empire will post 2.9581227 EPS for the current year.

Empire Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 31st were given a dividend of $0.22 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, October 15th. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.9%. Empire’s dividend payout ratio is currently 28.47%.

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.