Empire Company Limited (TSE:EMP.A) Stock Has Consensus Target Price of C$53.67

Empire Company Limited (TSE:EMP.A) has earned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the nine research firms that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 12 month price objective among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is C$53.67.

EMP.A has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce raised their price objective on Empire from C$54.00 to C$58.00 and gave the company an “outperformer” rating in a research note on Friday, June 19th. Royal Bank Of Canada increased their target price on Empire from C$55.00 to C$58.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday, June 19th. Scotia decreased their price target on Empire from C$50.00 to C$48.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, September 11th. TD decreased their price target on Empire from C$53.00 to C$52.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, September 11th. Finally, National Bank Financial dropped their price objective on Empire from C$56.00 to C$54.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, September 11th.

Empire Price Performance

Shares of EMP.A opened at C$48.85 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of C$10.93 billion, a P/E ratio of 49.34, a P/E/G ratio of 16.20 and a beta of -0.21. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of C$48.15 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of C$48.58. 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 has a 1 year low of C$43.81 and a 1 year high of C$52.64.

Empire (TSE:EMP.A) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, September 10th. The company reported C$1.04 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$8.47 billion for the quarter. On average, analysts forecast that Empire will post 2.96 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Empire Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 30th. Investors of record on Friday, October 30th will be paid a $0.2425 dividend. This represents a $0.97 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 15th. Empire’s payout ratio is presently 91.16%.

About Empire

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.