Empire Company Limited (TSE:EMP.A) Receives Consensus Rating of “Hold” from Brokerages

Shares of Empire Company Limited (TSE:EMP.A) have received an average rating of “Hold” from the eight ratings firms that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat reports. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. The average 1 year price objective among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is C$55.00.

A number of brokerages recently commented on EMP.A. Scotiabank downgraded shares of Empire from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and set a C$52.00 price objective on the stock. in a research report on Thursday, April 9th. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce lifted their target price on shares of Empire from C$54.00 to C$58.00 and gave the company an “outperformer” rating in a research note on Friday, June 19th. National Bank Financial boosted their price target on shares of Empire from C$54.00 to C$55.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Monday, June 15th. Desjardins upped their price target on shares of Empire from C$53.00 to C$56.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Sunday, June 21st. Finally, TD upped their price target on shares of Empire from C$50.00 to C$53.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, June 19th.

Empire Stock Up 2.0%

Shares of Empire stock opened at C$50.10 on Friday. Empire has a 1 year low of C$43.81 and a 1 year high of C$58.32. The company has a market cap of C$11.28 billion, a P/E ratio of 58.26, a P/E/G ratio of 16.20 and a beta of -0.22. The company has a current ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 0.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 135.51. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of C$49.14 and a 200 day moving average price of C$48.29.

Empire (TSE:EMP.A) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, June 18th. The company reported C$0.94 earnings per share 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, analysts expect that Empire will post 2.9581227 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Empire Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, July 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, July 31st will be paid a dividend of $0.2425 per share. This is a boost from Empire’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.22. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, July 15th. This represents a $0.97 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.9%. Empire’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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.