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

Shares of Empire Company Limited (TSE:EMP.A) have been assigned an average rating of “Hold” from the seven analysts that are covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and three have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month price target among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is C$57.43.

Several brokerages have weighed in on EMP.A. Scotiabank upped their target price on shares of Empire from C$49.00 to C$62.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, June 20th. Royal Bank Of Canada upped their price target on shares of Empire from C$56.00 to C$61.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday, June 20th. CIBC upped their price target on shares of Empire from C$55.00 to C$59.00 in a report on Friday, June 20th. National Bankshares upped their price target on shares of Empire from C$53.00 to C$59.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday, June 20th. Finally, Desjardins upped their price target on shares of Empire from C$50.00 to C$55.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 17th.

Empire Trading Up 0.4%

Shares of Empire stock opened at C$56.45 on Friday. Empire has a 52-week low of C$35.05 and a 52-week high of C$57.10. 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 simple moving average is C$52.97 and its 200-day simple moving average is C$47.85. The firm has a market cap of C$7.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.60, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 16.20 and a beta of 0.48.

Empire Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, July 31st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 31st will be paid a $0.22 dividend. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.56%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, July 15th. This is an increase from Empire’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. Empire’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 29.20%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Empire

In other Empire news, Senior Officer Douglas Bigler Nathanson sold 600 shares of Empire stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of C$54.91, for a total transaction of C$32,946.00. Also, Senior Officer Pierre St-Laurent sold 8,772 shares of Empire stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of C$55.80, for a total value of C$489,477.60. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 153,761 shares of company stock worth $8,596,394. 2.18% of the stock is currently owned by 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.