Empire Company Limited (TSE:EMP.A) Given Consensus Rating of “Hold” by Analysts

Empire Company Limited (TSE:EMP.A) has received a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the seven research firms that are covering the firm, Marketbeat reports. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and two have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year target price among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is C$54.57.

A number of research firms recently weighed in on EMP.A. Scotiabank cut Empire from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and set a C$52.00 price target on the stock. in a report on Thursday, April 9th. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce upped their price target on Empire from C$54.00 to C$58.00 and gave the stock an “outperformer” rating in a report on Friday, June 19th. Desjardins upped their price target on Empire from C$53.00 to C$56.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Sunday, June 21st. Royal Bank Of Canada upped their price target on Empire from C$55.00 to C$58.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday, June 19th. Finally, National Bank Financial upped their price target on Empire from C$54.00 to C$55.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Monday, June 15th.

Empire Stock Down 2.4%

EMP.A opened at C$50.02 on Tuesday. The business has a 50 day moving average price of C$48.16 and a two-hundred day moving average price of C$48.06. The company has a quick ratio of 0.29, a current ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 135.51. The company has a market cap of C$11.26 billion, a PE ratio of 58.16, a P/E/G ratio of 16.20 and a beta of -0.20. Empire has a 52 week low of C$43.81 and a 52 week high of C$58.32.

Empire (TSE:EMP.A) last released its earnings results on Thursday, June 18th. The company reported C$0.94 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. The company had revenue of C$7.81 billion for the quarter. Empire had a return on equity of 12.94% and a net margin of 2.18%. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Empire will post 2.9581227 EPS for the current year.

Empire Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, April 30th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 30th were issued a $0.22 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, April 15th. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.8%. Empire’s dividend payout ratio is currently 102.33%.

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.