Empire Company Limited (TSE:EMP.A) to Issue $0.20 Quarterly Dividend

Empire Company Limited (TSE:EMP.A) declared a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, April 15th, TickerTech Dividends reports. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, April 30th will be paid a dividend of 0.20 per share on Wednesday, April 30th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.72%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 15th.

Empire Stock Up 1.1 %

Shares of TSE:EMP.A traded up C$0.49 on Friday, hitting C$46.40. 448,274 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 568,237. Empire has a 1-year low of C$31.50 and a 1-year high of C$49.28. The company has a market capitalization of C$6.52 billion, a PE ratio of 16.93, a P/E/G ratio of 16.20 and a beta of 0.48. 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 firm’s 50-day moving average is C$44.88 and its 200 day moving average is C$43.07.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

EMP.A has been the subject of several analyst reports. Scotiabank raised Empire from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price objective for the company from C$47.00 to C$49.00 in a research note on Friday, March 14th. Desjardins increased their price objective on Empire from C$47.00 to C$50.00 in a research note on Sunday, December 15th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of C$48.86.

Insider Activity at Empire

In related news, Senior Officer Simon Gagne sold 12,269 shares of Empire stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of C$48.22, for a total transaction of C$591,611.18. Also, Senior Officer Matthew Reindel sold 767 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of C$44.11, for a total transaction of C$33,832.37. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 20,459 shares of company stock worth $961,651. 2.18% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.