Analysts Set Empire Company Limited (TSE:EMP.A) Target Price at C$52.83

Empire Company Limited (TSE:EMP.A) has been assigned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the six analysts that are covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. The average 1-year price target among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is C$52.83.

Several research analysts have recently commented on the company. Royal Bank Of Canada decreased their price objective on Empire from C$61.00 to C$55.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 23rd. Scotiabank downgraded Empire from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and set a C$52.00 target price on the stock. in a research note on Thursday, April 9th.

Empire Stock Performance

TSE:EMP.A opened at C$47.34 on Thursday. The business has a 50 day moving average of C$49.04 and a 200 day moving average of C$48.62. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 135.51, a current ratio of 0.79 and a quick ratio of 0.29. Empire has a 1-year low of C$43.81 and a 1-year high of C$58.32. The company has a market capitalization of C$10.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 70.66, a PEG ratio of 16.20 and a beta of -0.04.

Empire (TSE:EMP.A) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 12th. The company reported C$0.72 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. The firm had revenue of C$7.89 billion for the quarter. Empire had a return on equity of 12.94% and a net margin of 2.18%. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Empire will post 2.9581227 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Empire Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 30th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 30th will be issued a dividend of $0.22 per share. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.9%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, April 15th. Empire’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 128.36%.

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.