Empire (TSE:EMP.A) Stock Price Passes Above 200-Day Moving Average – Should You Sell?

Empire Company Limited (TSE:EMP.A) passed above its 200-day moving average during trading on Wednesday . The stock has a 200-day moving average of C$49.25 and traded as high as C$49.30. Empire shares last traded at C$48.52, with a volume of 231,385 shares.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently weighed in on EMP.A. Desjardins cut their target price on shares of Empire from C$60.00 to C$53.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, December 12th. Scotiabank lowered their price target on shares of Empire from C$57.00 to C$52.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, December 12th. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce reduced their price objective on shares of Empire from C$59.00 to C$53.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, December 12th. TD Securities decreased their target price on shares of Empire from C$58.00 to C$50.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, December 12th. Finally, National Bank Financial cut their price target on Empire from C$58.00 to C$54.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, December 12th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Empire presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of C$52.83.

Empire Stock Performance

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 firm has a market capitalization of C$11.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.34, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 16.20 and a beta of 0.01. The stock’s fifty day moving average is C$47.40 and its two-hundred day moving average is C$49.25.

Empire (TSE:EMP.A) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, December 11th. The company reported C$0.69 earnings per share 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$8 billion during the quarter. Analysts forecast that Empire Company Limited will post 2.9581227 earnings per share for the current year.

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.