TD Securities Issues Positive Forecast for Empire (TSE:EMP.A) Stock Price

Empire (TSE:EMP.A) had its price target increased by TD Securities from C$44.00 to C$48.00 in a research note released on Friday,BayStreet.CA reports. They currently have a hold rating on the stock.

Several other research firms have also recently weighed in on EMP.A. Desjardins boosted their target price on Empire from C$44.00 to C$47.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 9th. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on shares of Empire from C$43.00 to C$44.00 in a report on Monday, December 2nd. CIBC raised their price objective on Empire from C$40.00 to C$47.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, September 13th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on Empire from C$42.00 to C$46.00 in a report on Tuesday, November 12th. Finally, National Bankshares raised their price target on Empire from C$42.00 to C$46.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Friday, September 13th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of C$48.14.

Empire Price Performance

Shares of EMP.A opened at C$44.69 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of C$6.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.31, a PEG ratio of 16.20 and a beta of 0.48. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is C$41.44 and its 200-day simple moving average is C$37.78. Empire has a twelve month low of C$31.45 and a twelve month high of C$46.77. 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 Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 31st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 31st were paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, October 15th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.79%. Empire’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 29.20%.

Insider Activity at Empire

In other Empire news, Senior Officer Douglas Bigler Nathanson sold 3,658 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of C$40.26, for a total transaction of C$147,252.79. Also, Senior Officer Pierre St-Laurent sold 4,850 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of C$41.21, for a total value of C$199,868.50. Company insiders own 2.18% of the company’s stock.

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.