Eastern (NASDAQ:EML) Director James Mitarotonda Acquires 2,433 Shares

Eastern Company (The) (NASDAQ:EML) Director James Mitarotonda purchased 2,433 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 12th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $20.14 per share, for a total transaction of $49,000.62. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director owned 634,933 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,787,550.62. This represents a 0.38% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link.

Eastern Stock Up 0.4%

NASDAQ:EML opened at $19.63 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $20.34 and a 200 day simple moving average of $22.39. Eastern Company has a 52-week low of $18.49 and a 52-week high of $30.72. The company has a market cap of $119.15 million, a PE ratio of 15.83 and a beta of 1.00. 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 (NASDAQ:EML) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 4th. The industrial products company reported $0.13 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.77 by ($0.64). The firm had revenue of $55.34 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $73.41 million. Eastern had a return on equity of 7.18% and a net margin of 2.96%.

Eastern Announces Dividend

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

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Eastern

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. BNP Paribas Financial Markets increased its holdings in Eastern by 82.9% during the third quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 1,273 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $30,000 after buying an additional 577 shares during the last quarter. Focus Partners Wealth bought a new position in shares of Eastern in the 3rd quarter valued at about $40,000. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC grew its position in shares of Eastern by 295.9% in the 2nd quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 1,738 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $40,000 after acquiring an additional 1,299 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Eastern during the 2nd quarter worth about $70,000. Finally, Strs Ohio bought a new stake in shares of Eastern in the 1st quarter valued at about $127,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.99% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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