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

Empire Company Limited (TSE:EMP.A) has received a consensus rating of “Hold” from the seven research firms that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and three have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price objective among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is C$57.57.

EMP.A has been the topic of several recent research reports. CIBC lifted their target price on shares of Empire from C$55.00 to C$59.00 in a report on Friday, June 20th. Desjardins upped their target price on Empire from C$50.00 to C$55.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 17th. Royal Bank Of Canada raised their target price on Empire from C$56.00 to C$61.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday, June 20th. TD Securities upped their price target on Empire from C$48.00 to C$58.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, June 20th. Finally, Scotiabank lifted their price objective on shares of Empire from C$62.00 to C$63.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 21st.

Empire Trading Down 0.1%

TSE EMP.A opened at C$53.31 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 135.51, a quick ratio of 0.29 and a current ratio of 0.79. Empire has a one year low of C$37.27 and a one year high of C$58.32. The company’s 50 day moving average price is C$55.67 and its 200 day moving average price is C$50.87. The firm has a market capitalization of C$12.35 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.19, a PEG ratio of 16.20 and a beta of 0.33.

Empire Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, July 31st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 31st were issued a $0.22 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, July 15th. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.7%. This is an increase from Empire’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. Empire’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 27.30%.

Insider Activity at Empire

In other Empire news, Senior Officer Douglas Bigler Nathanson sold 1,500 shares of Empire stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of C$56.10, for a total transaction of C$84,150.00. Also, Director Michael Bennett Medline sold 45,015 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of C$56.51, for a total value of C$2,543,797.65. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 206,858 shares of company stock valued at $11,591,674. 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.