Pierre St-Laurent Sells 5,354 Shares of Empire Company Limited (TSE:EMP.A) Stock

Empire Company Limited (TSE:EMP.A) Senior Officer Pierre St-Laurent sold 5,354 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of C$44.96, for a total transaction of C$240,715.84.

Empire Price Performance

Empire stock traded up C$0.14 during trading on Monday, reaching C$46.35. The company had a trading volume of 229,697 shares, compared to its average volume of 554,351. The firm has a market capitalization of C$6.51 billion, a PE ratio of 16.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 16.20 and a beta of 0.48. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is C$43.50 and its 200 day simple moving average is C$42.08. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 135.51, a quick ratio of 0.29 and a current ratio of 0.79. Empire Company Limited has a 1-year low of C$31.45 and a 1-year high of C$46.91.

Empire Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 31st were given a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, January 15th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.73%. Empire’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 29.20%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

EMP.A has been the topic of several recent research reports. TD Securities upped their price target on shares of Empire from C$44.00 to C$48.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on Empire from C$44.00 to C$48.00 in a report on Friday, December 13th. Desjardins boosted their price target on Empire from C$47.00 to C$50.00 in a report on Sunday, December 15th. CIBC upped their price objective on Empire from C$47.00 to C$55.00 in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Scotiabank raised shares of Empire from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their target price for the company from C$47.00 to C$49.00 in a report on Friday, March 14th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of C$48.86.

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.