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

Shares of Empire Company Limited (TSE:EMP.A) have earned an average rating of “Hold” from the six analysts that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 1 year target price among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is C$52.83.

Separately, Scotiabank lowered shares of Empire from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and set a C$52.00 price target on the stock. in a research report on Thursday, April 9th.

Empire Price Performance

TSE:EMP.A opened at C$48.00 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of C$10.88 billion, a PE ratio of 71.64, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 16.20 and a beta of -0.04. Empire has a 12 month low of C$43.81 and a 12 month high of C$58.32. 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’s 50-day moving average price is C$47.89 and its two-hundred day moving average price is C$48.25.

Empire (TSE:EMP.A) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 12th. The company reported C$0.72 EPS for the quarter. The firm had revenue of C$7.89 billion for the quarter. Empire had a net margin of 2.18% and a return on equity of 12.94%. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Empire will post 2.9581227 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Empire Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, April 30th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 30th were given a $0.22 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, April 15th. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.8%. Empire’s payout ratio is 128.36%.

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.