Royal Bank Of Canada Has Lowered Expectations for Empire (TSE:EMP.A) Stock Price

Empire (TSE:EMP.A) had its price objective reduced by research analysts at Royal Bank Of Canada from C$61.00 to C$55.00 in a report released on Friday,BayStreet.CA reports. The firm presently has a “sector perform” rating on the stock. Royal Bank Of Canada’s price objective suggests a potential upside of 20.64% from the company’s previous close.

A number of other equities research analysts have also weighed in on the stock. TD Securities lowered their target price on shares of Empire from C$58.00 to C$50.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, December 12th. National Bankshares cut their target price on 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. CIBC decreased 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. Desjardins dropped 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. Finally, Scotiabank decreased their price target on Empire from C$57.00 to C$52.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, December 12th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Empire currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of C$52.83.

Empire Trading Up 0.1%

Shares of EMP.A stock traded up C$0.05 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting C$45.59. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 111,019 shares, compared to its average volume of 506,714. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is C$48.72 and its 200-day simple moving average is C$50.92. Empire has a 52 week low of C$40.33 and a 52 week high of C$58.32. The company has a market cap of C$10.49 billion, a PE ratio of 15.45, a P/E/G ratio of 16.20 and a beta of 0.03. 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) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 11th. The company reported C$0.69 EPS for the quarter. Empire had a net margin of 2.18% and a return on equity of 12.94%. The business had revenue of C$8 billion during the quarter. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Empire will post 2.9581227 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.