Empire Company Limited (TSE:EMP.A) Senior Officer Matthew Reindel Sells 767 Shares of Stock

Empire Company Limited (TSE:EMP.A) Senior Officer Matthew Reindel sold 767 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, March 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of C$44.11, for a total value of C$33,832.37.

Matthew Reindel also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Thursday, December 19th, Matthew Reindel sold 4,587 shares of Empire stock. The shares were sold at an average price of C$43.81, for a total value of C$200,956.47.

Empire Price Performance

TSE:EMP.A opened at C$44.90 on Thursday. Empire Company Limited has a 52 week low of C$31.45 and a 52 week high of C$46.77. The company has a market capitalization of C$6.30 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.39, a PEG ratio of 16.20 and a beta of 0.48. The company has a 50-day moving average of C$43.40 and a 200-day moving average of C$41.94. 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 Announces Dividend

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on EMP.A. Scotiabank raised Empire from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from C$47.00 to C$49.00 in a research report on Friday, March 14th. Desjardins raised their price objective on shares of Empire from C$47.00 to C$50.00 in a research report on Sunday, December 15th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price target on shares of Empire from C$44.00 to C$48.00 in a research report on Friday, December 13th. TD Securities lifted their price objective on Empire from C$44.00 to C$48.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, CIBC lifted their target price on shares of Empire from C$47.00 to C$55.00 in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target 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.