Empire (TSE:EMP.A) Given New C$63.00 Price Target at Scotiabank

Empire (TSE:EMP.A) had its price objective hoisted by Scotiabank from C$62.00 to C$63.00 in a report issued on Thursday morning,BayStreet.CA reports. Scotiabank currently has an outperform rating on the stock.

A number of other analysts have also recently commented on EMP.A. National Bankshares lifted their target price on shares of Empire from C$53.00 to C$59.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Friday, June 20th. Desjardins lifted their target price on shares of Empire from C$50.00 to C$55.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 17th. Royal Bank Of Canada lifted their target price on shares of Empire from C$56.00 to C$61.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Friday, June 20th. TD Securities lifted their target price on shares of Empire from C$48.00 to C$58.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, June 20th. Finally, CIBC lifted their target price on shares of Empire from C$55.00 to C$59.00 in a research note on Friday, June 20th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of C$57.57.

Empire Stock Down 3.0%

TSE:EMP.A opened at C$55.74 on Thursday. Empire has a fifty-two week low of C$37.27 and a fifty-two week high of C$58.32. The stock has a market capitalization of C$7.83 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.34, a P/E/G ratio of 16.20 and a beta of 0.48. 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 company’s 50-day simple moving average is C$55.56 and its 200-day simple moving average is C$50.36.

Empire Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, July 31st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 31st were given a $0.22 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, July 15th. This is an increase from Empire’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.6%. Empire’s dividend payout ratio is currently 29.20%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Empire news, Senior Officer Simon Gagne sold 4,475 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of C$55.79, for a total value of C$249,660.25. Also, Senior Officer Sandra Sanderson sold 4,526 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of C$56.00, for a total transaction of C$253,456.00. Insiders have sold a total of 206,858 shares of company stock valued at $11,591,674 over the last three months. Company insiders own 2.18% of the company’s stock.

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.