The Globe and Mail reports in its Friday, Nov. 24, edition that National Bank Financial analyst Vishal Shreedhar has downgraded his recommendation for Empire to "sector perform" from "outperform." The Globe's David Leeder writes that Mr. Shreedhar is sticking with his $44 share target. Analysts on average target the shares at $42.50. The Globe reports that Mr. Shreedhar is "moving to the sidelines" on Empire following a period of share price appreciation." Mr. Shreedhar says in a note: "Looking forward, we believe Empire has opportunity related to easy comparisons in H2/F24, ongoing improvement initiatives and inexpensive valuation. That said, it has structural deficiencies versus peers including an elevated mix of lower growth conventional stores and less pharmacy exposure (which we believe is a superior business versus grocery). The value gap versus peers is noteworthy. However, we believe it will persist until Empire delivers comparable/sustainable growth versus peers. Empire trades at 6.5 times NTM [next 12-month] EV/EBITDA for the retail business (five-year average is 7.2 times). For comparison, Loblaw retail trades at eight times our NTM retail EBITDA and Metro trades at 10.2 times our NTM EBITDA."