Eastern (NASDAQ:EML) Director John Everets Purchases 1,435 Shares of Stock

Eastern Company (The) (NASDAQ:EML) Director John Everets acquired 1,435 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 16th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $19.55 per share, with a total value of $28,054.25. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director directly owned 139,855 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,734,165.25. The trade was a 1.04% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink.

Eastern Trading Up 0.8%

Shares of NASDAQ EML traded up $0.16 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $19.81. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 327 shares, compared to its average volume of 10,143. The stock has a market cap of $120.22 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.97 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a current ratio of 2.99 and a quick ratio of 1.30. Eastern Company has a one year low of $18.49 and a one year high of $30.03. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $20.29 and its 200-day simple moving average is $22.37.

Eastern (NASDAQ:EML) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 4th. The industrial products company reported $0.13 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.77 by ($0.64). Eastern had a return on equity of 7.18% and a net margin of 2.96%.The business had revenue of $55.34 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $73.41 million.

Eastern Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 14th were paid a $0.11 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 14th. This represents a $0.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.2%. Eastern’s dividend payout ratio is 35.48%.

Institutional Trading of Eastern

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. bought a new position in Eastern during the third quarter worth about $206,000. Millennium Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Eastern during the third quarter worth about $202,000. Focus Partners Wealth bought a new position in shares of Eastern during the 3rd quarter valued at about $40,000. Bridgeway Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Eastern by 1.6% during the 3rd quarter. Bridgeway Capital Management LLC now owns 67,001 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $1,572,000 after purchasing an additional 1,025 shares in the last quarter. Finally, BNP Paribas Financial Markets grew its position in shares of Eastern by 82.9% in the 3rd quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 1,273 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $30,000 after purchasing an additional 577 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.99% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Eastern in a research note on Monday. One analyst has rated the stock with a Hold rating, According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold”.

About Eastern

The Eastern Company designs, manufactures, and sells engineered solutions to industrial markets in the United States and internationally. The company offers turnkey returnable packaging solutions, which are used in the assembly processes of vehicles, aircraft, and durable goods, as well as in production processes of plastic packaging products, packaged consumer goods, and pharmaceuticals; designs and manufactures blow mold tools and injection blow mold tooling products, and 2-step stretch blow molds and related components for the stretch blow molding industry; and supplies blow molds and change parts to the food, beverage, healthcare, and chemical industries.