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

Empire Company Limited (TSE:EMP.A)’s share price passed above its two hundred day moving average during trading on Friday . The stock has a two hundred day moving average of C$48.16 and traded as high as C$50.05. Empire shares last traded at C$49.33, with a volume of 261,149 shares changing hands.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, Scotiabank lowered Empire from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and set a C$52.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Thursday, April 9th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of C$52.83.

Empire Trading Down 1.3%

The company has a quick ratio of 0.29, a current ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 135.51. The firm has a market capitalization of C$11.18 billion, a P/E ratio of 73.63, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 16.20 and a beta of -0.20. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is C$47.85 and its 200-day simple moving average is C$48.16.

Empire (TSE:EMP.A) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 12th. The company reported C$0.72 EPS for the quarter. Empire had a net margin of 2.18% and a return on equity of 12.94%. The firm had revenue of C$7.89 billion for the quarter. Analysts anticipate that Empire Company Limited will post 2.9581227 EPS for the current year.

Empire Announces Dividend

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

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.