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

Shares of Empire Company Limited (TSE:EMP.A) have been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the eight analysts that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating on the company. The average twelve-month price target among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is C$55.00.

EMP.A has been the subject of several analyst reports. Desjardins raised their price objective on Empire from C$53.00 to C$56.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Sunday, June 21st. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce boosted their target price on Empire from C$54.00 to C$58.00 and gave the company an “outperformer” rating in a research report on Friday, June 19th. National Bank Financial increased their price target on Empire from C$54.00 to C$55.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Monday, June 15th. TD increased their price target on Empire from C$50.00 to C$53.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, June 19th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets upgraded Empire from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a C$58.00 price target for the company in a research report on Monday, July 20th.

Empire Stock Down 1.1%

Shares of TSE EMP.A opened at C$48.31 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 0.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 135.51. Empire has a 12-month low of C$43.81 and a 12-month high of C$58.32. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is C$49.88 and its 200-day moving average price is C$48.80. The stock has a market capitalization of C$10.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 56.17, a P/E/G ratio of 16.20 and a beta of -0.20.

Empire (TSE:EMP.A) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, June 18th. The company reported C$0.94 EPS for the quarter. Empire had a return on equity of 12.94% and a net margin of 2.18%.The company had revenue of C$7.81 billion during the quarter. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Empire will post 2.9581227 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Empire Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, July 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, July 31st were paid a $0.2425 dividend. This is an increase from Empire’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.22. This represents a $0.97 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, July 15th. Empire’s payout ratio is currently 102.33%.

Empire Company Profile

Empire Company Limited (TSX: EMP.A) is a Canadian company headquartered in Stellarton, Nova Scotia. Empire’s key businesses are food retailing, through wholly-owned subsidiary Sobeys Inc, and related real estate. With approximately $32 billion in annual sales and $17 billion in assets, Empire and its subsidiaries, franchisees and affiliates employ approximately 130,000 people. Additional financial information relating to Empire, including the Company’s Annual Information Form, can be found on the Company’s website at www.empireco.ca or on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca.