Empire (TSE:EMP.A) Shares Cross Above 200-Day Moving Average – Here’s What Happened

Empire Company Limited (TSE:EMP.A)’s stock price passed above its 200-day moving average during trading on Monday . The stock has a 200-day moving average of C$45.94 and traded as high as C$51.88. Empire shares last traded at C$51.28, with a volume of 183,011 shares traded.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Separately, Scotiabank upgraded shares of Empire from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their price target for the stock from C$47.00 to C$49.00 in a research note on Friday, March 14th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of C$48.86.

Empire Trading Down 1.2%

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 135.51, a current ratio of 0.79 and a quick ratio of 0.29. The firm has a market capitalization of C$7.20 billion, a PE ratio of 18.72, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 16.20 and a beta of 0.48. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is C$50.02 and its 200 day moving average price is C$45.94.

Empire Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 30th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, April 30th were given a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.56%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, April 15th. Empire’s payout ratio is 29.20%.

Insider Transactions at Empire

In other news, Senior Officer Pierre St-Laurent sold 5,354 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of C$44.96, for a total value of C$240,715.84. Also, Senior Officer Simon Gagne sold 12,269 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of C$48.22, for a total transaction of C$591,611.18. Insiders sold 20,459 shares of company stock valued at $961,651 in the last quarter. 2.18% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.