Empire Company Limited (TSE:EMP.A) Receives Average Recommendation of “Hold” from Analysts

Shares of Empire Company Limited (TSE:EMP.A) have been given a consensus recommendation of “Hold” by the six brokerages that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and two have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price target among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is C$52.83.

A number of research firms have weighed in on EMP.A. Royal Bank Of Canada reduced their price target on Empire from C$61.00 to C$55.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, January 23rd. Scotiabank downgraded Empire from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and set a C$52.00 price target for the company. in a research report on Thursday, April 9th.

Empire Price Performance

TSE EMP.A opened at C$46.92 on Monday. Empire has a 52-week low of C$43.81 and a 52-week high of C$58.32. 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 business has a 50 day simple moving average of C$48.27 and a 200 day simple moving average of C$48.38. The stock has a market cap of C$10.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 70.03, a PEG ratio of 16.20 and a beta of -0.04.

Empire (TSE:EMP.A) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 12th. The company reported C$0.72 earnings per share 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. Analysts anticipate that Empire will post 2.9581227 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Empire Announces Dividend

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 dividend of $0.22 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, April 15th. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.9%. Empire’s dividend 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.