Comparing Cadre (NYSE:CDRE) & Eastern (NASDAQ:EML)

Cadre (NYSE:CDRE) and Eastern (NASDAQ:EML) are both small-cap industrials companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, risk, earnings, profitability, institutional ownership, dividends and analyst recommendations.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Cadre and Eastern”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Cadre	$567.56 million	2.99	$36.13 million	$1.12	37.31
Eastern	$272.75 million	0.44	-$8.53 million	$1.24	15.83

Cadre has higher revenue and earnings than Eastern. Eastern is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Cadre, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Volatility & Risk

Cadre has a beta of 1.36, meaning that its stock price is 36% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Eastern has a beta of 1, meaning that its stock price has a similar volatility profile to the S&P 500.

Dividends

Cadre pays an annual dividend of $0.38 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.9%. Eastern pays an annual dividend of $0.44 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.2%. Cadre pays out 33.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Eastern pays out 35.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Cadre has raised its dividend for 2 consecutive years.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

44.0% of Cadre shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 77.0% of Eastern shares are owned by institutional investors. 31.5% of Cadre shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 17.0% of Eastern shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Cadre and Eastern’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Cadre	7.33%	13.94%	6.27%
Eastern	2.96%	7.18%	3.84%

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings for Cadre and Eastern, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Cadre	1	0	4	1	2.83
Eastern	0	1	0	0	2.00

Cadre currently has a consensus price target of $37.67, indicating a potential downside of 9.85%. Given Cadre’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, research analysts plainly believe Cadre is more favorable than Eastern.

Summary

Cadre beats Eastern on 15 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Cadre

Cadre Holdings, Inc. manufactures and distributes safety that provides protection to users in hazardous or life-threatening situations in the United States and internationally. The company operates in two segments, Products and Distribution. It offers body armor product, such as concealable, corrections, and tactical armor under the Safariland and Protech Tactical brand names; survival suits, remotely operated vehicles, specialty tools, blast sensors, accessories, and vehicle blast attenuation seats for bomb safety technicians; bomb suits; duty gear, including belts and accessories; and other protective equipment comprising communications gear, forensic and investigation products, firearms cleaning solutions, and crowd control products. The company also offers third-party products, such as uniforms, optics, boots, firearms, and ammunition. It serves first responders, such as state and local law enforcement, fire and rescue, explosive ordnance disposal technicians, emergency medical technicians, fishing, and wildlife enforcement and departments of corrections, as well as federal agencies including the U.S. Department of State, U.S. Department of Defense, U.S. Department of Interior, U.S. Department of Justice, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Department of Corrections, the Department of Energy, Los Alamos National Laboratories, Waste Isolation Plant, and various foreign government agencies. Cadre Holdings, Inc. was founded in 1964 and is headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida.

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. It also provides rotary latches, compression latches, draw latches, hinges, camlocks, key switches, padlocks, and handles; and development and program management services for custom electromechanical and mechanical systems for original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and customer applications. In addition, the company designs and manufactures proprietary vision technology for OEMs and aftermarket applications, as well as offers aftermarket components to the heavy- and medium-duty truck, motorhome, and bus markets. The Eastern Company was founded in 1858 and is based in Shelton, Connecticut.