Empire (TSE:EMP.A) Stock Price Passes Above 200-Day Moving Average – Here’s Why

Empire Company Limited (TSE:EMP.A)’s stock price passed above its 200-day moving average during trading on Thursday . The stock has a 200-day moving average of C$48.25 and traded as high as C$48.72. Empire shares last traded at C$48.00, with a volume of 340,102 shares.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, 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 four have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of C$52.83.

Empire Stock Performance

The stock has a market capitalization of C$10.88 billion, a PE ratio of 71.64, a PEG ratio of 16.20 and a beta of -0.04. 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 firm has a 50 day moving average price of C$47.89 and a 200-day moving average price of C$48.25.

Empire (TSE:EMP.A) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 12th. The company reported C$0.72 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. Empire had a return on equity of 12.94% and a net margin of 2.18%.The firm had revenue of C$7.89 billion during the quarter. Research analysts expect that Empire Company Limited will post 2.9581227 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Empire Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, April 30th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 30th were issued a dividend of $0.22 per share. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, April 15th. Empire’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 128.36%.

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. 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.