Brokerages Set Empire Company Limited (TSE:EMP.A) Price Target at C$48.57

Empire Company Limited (TSE:EMP.A - Get Free Report) has earned a consensus rating of "Hold" from the seven ratings firms that are currently covering the stock, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and three have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year target price among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is C$48.57.

EMP.A has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Desjardins upped their price objective on Empire from C$47.00 to C$50.00 in a research note on Sunday, December 15th. CIBC boosted their target price on shares of Empire from C$47.00 to C$55.00 in a report on Friday, December 13th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on Empire from C$42.00 to C$46.00 in a report on Tuesday, November 12th. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on shares of Empire from C$44.00 to C$48.00 in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Scotiabank boosted their target price on shares of Empire from C$44.00 to C$47.00 in a research note on Friday, December 13th.

Empire Stock Performance

Shares of EMP.A stock traded down C$0.25 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching C$42.35. The company had a trading volume of 171,376 shares, compared to its average volume of 464,827. Empire has a one year low of C$31.45 and a one year high of C$46.77. 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 business has a fifty day moving average price of C$43.39 and a 200-day moving average price of C$40.76. The firm has a market cap of C$5.95 billion, a PE ratio of 15.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 16.20 and a beta of 0.48.

Empire Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 31st were paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.89%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, January 15th. Empire's payout ratio is 29.20%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Empire

In other Empire news, Senior Officer Matthew Reindel sold 4,587 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of C$43.81, for a total transaction of C$200,956.47. Also, Senior Officer Simon Gagne sold 8,458 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Monday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of C$44.48, for a total value of C$376,211.84. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 96,154 shares of company stock valued at $4,305,270. 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.