James Mitarotonda Purchases 2,433 Shares of Eastern (NASDAQ:EML) Stock

Eastern Company (The) (NASDAQ:EML) Director James Mitarotonda purchased 2,433 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 12th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $20.14 per share, with a total value of $49,000.62. Following the acquisition, the director owned 634,933 shares in the company, valued at $12,787,550.62. The trade was a 0.38% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website.

Eastern Trading Up 1.1%

NASDAQ EML traded up $0.22 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $19.77. 26,407 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 10,165. The stock has a market cap of $119.97 million, a PE ratio of 15.98 and a beta of 1.00. Eastern Company has a 52 week low of $18.49 and a 52 week high of $30.72. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $20.39 and a 200 day moving average price of $22.41. The company has a quick ratio of 1.30, a current ratio of 2.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27.

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

Eastern Announces Dividend

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

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Teton Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Eastern during the third quarter valued at about $3,293,000. Minerva Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Eastern by 3.8% during the second quarter. Minerva Advisors LLC now owns 525,053 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $11,982,000 after buying an additional 19,066 shares during the period. GatePass Capital LLC raised its stake in shares of Eastern by 87.8% in the third quarter. GatePass Capital LLC now owns 33,800 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $793,000 after purchasing an additional 15,800 shares during the last quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Eastern during the second quarter worth about $326,000. Finally, LSV Asset Management boosted its position in Eastern by 71.5% in the third 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 last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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, December 8th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Hold rating, According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus 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.