Royal Bank Of Canada Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Empire (TSE:EMP.A) Stock

Empire (TSE:EMP.A) had its target price upped by Royal Bank Of Canada from C$55.00 to C$58.00 in a research note issued to investors on Friday,BayStreet.CA reports. The brokerage presently has a “sector perform” rating on the stock. Royal Bank Of Canada’s price target would indicate a potential upside of 12.56% from the stock’s previous close.

Other equities analysts have also issued reports about the company. Desjardins set a C$53.00 price target on Empire and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday. National Bank Financial raised their price objective on shares of Empire from C$54.00 to C$55.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Monday. Finally, Scotiabank cut Empire from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and set a C$52.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Thursday, April 9th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of C$54.14.

Empire Stock Up 0.5%

Shares of Empire stock traded up C$0.28 on Friday, hitting C$51.53. The company had a trading volume of 119,605 shares, compared to its average volume of 479,892. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 135.51, a quick ratio of 0.29 and a current ratio of 0.79. The stock has a 50 day moving average of C$47.81 and a 200-day moving average of C$48.08. Empire has a 1 year low of C$43.81 and a 1 year high of C$58.32. The stock has a market capitalization of C$11.68 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 76.91, a P/E/G ratio of 16.20 and a beta of -0.20.

Empire (TSE:EMP.A) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, June 18th. The company reported C$0.94 earnings per share 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$7.81 billion for the quarter. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Empire will post 2.9581227 earnings per share for the current 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.