The Eastern Company (NASDAQ:EML) Director Acquires $25,913.52 in Stock

The Eastern Company (NASDAQ:EML) Director Frederick D. Disanto bought 1,116 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 21st. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $23.22 per share, for a total transaction of $25,913.52. Following the purchase, the director now owns 73,123 shares in the company, valued at $1,697,916.06. The trade was a 1.55% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link.

Eastern Trading Up 0.3%

Shares of EML stock opened at $23.22 on Friday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $22.95 and its 200-day moving average price is $26.13. The company has a current ratio of 2.64, a quick ratio of 1.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37. The stock has a market cap of $142.73 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -22.54 and a beta of 1.08. The Eastern Company has a twelve month low of $19.06 and a twelve month high of $35.03.

Eastern (NASDAQ:EML) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 6th. The industrial products company reported $0.31 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.41 by ($0.10). The firm had revenue of $63.31 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $71.33 million. Eastern had a negative net margin of 2.26% and a positive return on equity of 10.44%.

Eastern Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 15th will be given a $0.11 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 15th. This represents a $0.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.89%. Eastern’s payout ratio is currently -33.33%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of EML. Koss Olinger Consulting LLC acquired a new position in Eastern in the first quarter valued at about $591,000. Citadel Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Eastern in the fourth quarter valued at about $340,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its position in Eastern by 165.2% in the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 19,221 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $510,000 after buying an additional 11,974 shares during the last quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. lifted its position in Eastern by 3.9% in the fourth quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 256,278 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $6,802,000 after buying an additional 9,524 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its position in Eastern by 43.4% in the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 20,533 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $520,000 after buying an additional 6,219 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.99% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, Wall Street Zen cut shares of Eastern from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 8th.

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.