Empire (TSE:EMP.A) Share Price Passes Above 200-Day Moving Average – What’s Next?

Empire Company Limited (TSE:EMP.A) shares crossed above its 200-day moving average during trading on Friday . The stock has a 200-day moving average of C$41.46 and traded as high as C$45.24. Empire shares last traded at C$45.05, with a volume of 288,147 shares traded.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

EMP.A has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. TD Securities lifted their price objective on Empire from C$44.00 to C$48.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. CIBC lifted their price objective on Empire from C$47.00 to C$55.00 in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Desjardins lifted their price objective on Empire from C$47.00 to C$50.00 in a research note on Sunday, December 15th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on Empire from C$42.00 to C$46.00 in a research note on Tuesday, November 12th. Finally, Scotiabank lifted their price objective on Empire from C$44.00 to C$47.00 in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Empire has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of C$48.57.

Empire Trading Down 0.1 %

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 50 day moving average of C$43.41 and a two-hundred day moving average of C$41.55. The stock has a market cap of C$6.33 billion, a PE ratio of 16.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 16.20 and a beta of 0.48.

Empire Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 31st. Investors of record on Friday, January 31st were paid a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, January 15th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.78%. Empire’s dividend payout ratio is presently 29.20%.

Insider Activity at Empire

In other Empire news, Director Michael Bennett Medline sold 75,844 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of C$44.83, for a total transaction of C$3,400,086.52. Also, Senior Officer Matthew Reindel sold 4,587 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of C$43.81, for a total value of C$200,956.47. Insiders sold a total of 96,154 shares of company stock worth $4,305,270 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 2.18% of the company’s stock.

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.