Empire Company Limited Plans Quarterly Dividend of $0.20 (TSE:EMP.A)

Empire Company Limited (TSE:EMP.A) announced a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, October 15th, TickerTech reports. Investors of record on Thursday, October 31st will be paid a dividend of 0.20 per share on Thursday, October 31st. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.94%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, October 15th.

Empire Price Performance

TSE EMP.A opened at C$41.18 on Monday. 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 company has a market capitalization of C$5.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.03, a PEG ratio of 16.20 and a beta of 0.48. The stock has a 50-day moving average of C$38.69 and a 200 day moving average of C$35.28. Empire has a one year low of C$31.45 and a one year high of C$41.48.

Insider Buying and Selling at Empire

In other news, Senior Officer Vivek Sood sold 4,236 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, July 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of C$36.17, for a total transaction of C$153,228.83. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 381 shares in the company, valued at C$13,781.91. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. In related news, Senior Officer Vivek Sood sold 4,236 shares of Empire stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of C$36.17, for a total transaction of C$153,228.83. Following the sale, the insider now owns 381 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately C$13,781.91. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. Also, Senior Officer Douglas Bigler Nathanson sold 4,525 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of C$39.66, for a total value of C$179,461.50. Insiders have sold 20,269 shares of company stock valued at $788,772 over the last 90 days. 2.17% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

EMP.A has been the subject of several research reports. TD Securities boosted their price objective on shares of Empire from C$38.00 to C$44.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, September 13th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on shares of Empire from C$40.00 to C$43.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, September 13th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on Empire from C$41.00 to C$42.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Friday, September 13th. Desjardins upped their price objective on Empire from C$42.00 to C$44.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 13th. Finally, CIBC increased their target price on Empire from C$40.00 to C$47.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, September 13th. Four research 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 company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of C$43.14.

Empire Company Profile

Empire Company Limited, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the food retail and related real estate businesses in Canada. It operates through two segments, Food Retailing, and Investments and Other Operations. The company owns, affiliates, and franchises approximately 1,500 retail stores under various retail banners, including Sobeys, Safeway, IGA, Foodland, FreshCo, Thrifty Foods, and Lawtons Drugs; and approximately 350 retail fuel locations.