Empire Company Limited (TSE:EMP.A) Receives C$48.57 Consensus Target Price from Brokerages

Empire Company Limited (TSE:EMP.A - Get Free Report) has received an average recommendation of "Hold" from the seven research firms that are presently covering the firm, Marketbeat 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 analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is C$48.57.

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on EMP.A shares. Desjardins raised their price target on Empire from C$47.00 to C$50.00 in a research report on Sunday, December 15th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on shares of Empire from C$42.00 to C$46.00 in a report on Tuesday, November 12th. Scotiabank upped their price target on shares of Empire from C$44.00 to C$47.00 in a report on Friday, December 13th. CIBC raised their price target on shares of Empire from C$47.00 to C$55.00 in a report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on shares of Empire from C$44.00 to C$48.00 in a research report on Friday, December 13th.

Empire Price Performance

TSE:EMP.A traded up C$0.31 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching C$43.89. The stock had a trading volume of 263,852 shares, compared to its average volume of 501,401. The stock has a market capitalization of C$6.16 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.02, a P/E/G ratio of 16.20 and a beta of 0.48. Empire has a one year low of C$31.45 and a one year high of C$46.77. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of C$43.44 and a two-hundred day moving average price of C$41.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 135.51, a quick ratio of 0.29 and a current ratio of 0.79.

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Empire Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 31st. Investors of record on Friday, January 31st were paid a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, January 15th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.82%. Empire's payout ratio is currently 29.20%.

Insider Transactions at Empire

In other news, Senior Officer Matthew Reindel sold 4,587 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of C$43.81, for a total transaction of C$200,956.47. Also, Senior Officer Douglas Bigler Nathanson sold 7,265 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, December 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of C$45.15, for a total value of C$328,014.75. Insiders sold a total of 96,154 shares of company stock valued at $4,305,270 in the last quarter. 2.18% of the stock is 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.