Eastern (NASDAQ:EML) Director Purchases $35,952.45 in Stock

Eastern Company (The) (NASDAQ:EML) Director James Mitarotonda bought 1,839 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 16th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $19.55 per share, with a total value of $35,952.45. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 42,794 shares in the company, valued at $836,622.70. The trade was a 4.49% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website.

Eastern Trading Up 0.1%

Shares of EML stock traded up $0.02 on Wednesday, hitting $19.65. The company had a trading volume of 9,430 shares, compared to its average volume of 10,184. The firm has a market cap of $119.26 million, a P/E ratio of 15.85 and a beta of 1.00. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $20.34 and its two-hundred day moving average is $22.39. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a quick ratio of 1.30 and a current ratio of 2.99. Eastern Company has a twelve month low of $18.49 and a twelve month high of $30.72.

Eastern (NASDAQ:EML) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 4th. The industrial products company reported $0.13 EPS 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 company had revenue of $55.34 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $73.41 million.

Eastern Announces Dividend

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

Institutional Trading of Eastern

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of EML. Teton Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Eastern during the 3rd quarter valued at $3,293,000. Minerva Advisors LLC increased its stake in Eastern by 3.8% in the second quarter. Minerva Advisors LLC now owns 525,053 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $11,982,000 after purchasing an additional 19,066 shares in the last quarter. GatePass Capital LLC raised its holdings in shares of Eastern by 87.8% during the third quarter. GatePass Capital LLC now owns 33,800 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $793,000 after purchasing an additional 15,800 shares during the period. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Eastern during the 2nd quarter worth about $326,000. Finally, LSV Asset Management grew its stake in shares of Eastern by 71.5% in the 3rd quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 23,403 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $549,000 after buying an additional 9,753 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.99% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, Weiss Ratings reissued 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.com, 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.