Empire (TSE:EMP.A) Hits New 52-Week High – Still a Buy?

Empire Company Limited (TSE:EMP.A) hit a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Monday . The company traded as high as C$49.34 and last traded at C$49.15, with a volume of 18731 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at C$49.18.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Separately, Scotiabank upgraded shares of Empire from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their target price for the stock from C$47.00 to C$49.00 in a report on Friday, March 14th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of C$48.86.

Empire Stock Up 0.8 %

The company has a current ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 0.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 135.51. The stock has a market capitalization of C$6.96 billion, a PE ratio of 18.09, a P/E/G ratio of 16.20 and a beta of 0.48. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is C$45.46 and its 200-day simple moving average is C$43.39.

Empire Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 30th. Investors of record on Wednesday, April 30th will be issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.61%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 15th. Empire’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 29.20%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Empire

In other Empire 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 value of C$591,611.18. Also, Senior Officer Matthew Reindel sold 767 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 sold 20,459 shares of company stock worth $961,651. 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.