Empire (TSE:EMP.A) Stock Price Passes Above 200-Day Moving Average – Here’s Why

Empire Company Limited (TSE:EMP.A)’s share price crossed above its two hundred day moving average during trading on Thursday . The stock has a two hundred day moving average of C$48.25 and traded as high as C$48.72. Empire shares last traded at C$48.00, with a volume of 340,102 shares.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, Scotiabank lowered Empire from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and set a C$52.00 target price on the stock. in a report on Thursday, April 9th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Empire currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of C$52.83.

Empire Stock Performance

The stock has a market capitalization of C$10.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 71.64, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 16.20 and a beta of -0.04. The firm has a fifty day moving average of C$47.89 and a 200 day moving average of C$48.25. 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 (TSE:EMP.A) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 12th. The company reported C$0.72 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$7.89 billion for the quarter. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Empire Company Limited will post 2.9581227 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Empire Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, April 30th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 30th were issued a $0.22 dividend. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, April 15th. Empire’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 128.36%.

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. 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.