Eastern (NASDAQ:EML) Director Michael Mardy Acquires 1,177 Shares

Eastern Company (The) (NASDAQ:EML) Director Michael Mardy acquired 1,177 shares of Eastern stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 16th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $19.55 per share, for a total transaction of $23,010.35. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 16,966 shares in the company, valued at $331,685.30. The trade was a 7.45% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink.

Eastern Trading Up 0.1%

Shares of EML stock traded up $0.02 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $19.65. 9,430 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 10,184. The company has a market cap of $119.26 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.85 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a quick ratio of 1.30, a current ratio of 2.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $20.34 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $22.39. Eastern Company has a 1-year low of $18.49 and a 1-year high of $30.72.

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

Eastern Dividend Announcement

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

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of EML. Minerva Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Eastern by 1.0% in the 3rd quarter. Minerva Advisors LLC now owns 530,053 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $12,435,000 after purchasing an additional 5,000 shares during the last quarter. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL lifted its holdings in Eastern by 1.8% in the second quarter. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL now owns 511,218 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $11,666,000 after buying an additional 8,999 shares during the period. Russell Investments Group Ltd. boosted its position in Eastern by 0.3% during the third quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 257,126 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $6,032,000 after acquiring an additional 775 shares during the last quarter. Gabelli Funds LLC boosted its position in Eastern by 0.4% during the third quarter. Gabelli Funds LLC now owns 165,000 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $3,871,000 after acquiring an additional 600 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Teton Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Eastern during the 3rd quarter worth about $3,293,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.99% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

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

Eastern Company Profile

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.