Insider Buying: The Eastern Company (NASDAQ:EML) Director Buys $30,080.00 in Stock

The Eastern Company (NASDAQ:EML) Director Frederick D. Disanto bought 1,280 shares of Eastern stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 20th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $23.50 per share, with a total value of $30,080.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now directly owns 72,007 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,692,164.50. The trade was a 1.81% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink.

Eastern Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ EML opened at $22.64 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37, a quick ratio of 1.42 and a current ratio of 2.64. The firm has a market cap of $139.17 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -21.98 and a beta of 1.08. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $22.87 and its 200-day simple moving average is $26.07. The Eastern Company has a 52 week low of $19.06 and a 52 week high of $35.03.

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

Eastern Dividend Announcement

The company 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 dividend of $0.11 per share. This represents a $0.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.94%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 15th. Eastern’s dividend payout ratio is -33.33%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

Institutional Trading of Eastern

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Empowered Funds LLC grew its stake in shares of Eastern by 7.1% in the first quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 31,855 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $807,000 after acquiring an additional 2,100 shares during the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its holdings in Eastern by 43.4% in the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 20,533 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $520,000 after acquiring an additional 6,219 shares in the last quarter. Koss Olinger Consulting LLC acquired a new position in Eastern in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $591,000. Minerva Advisors LLC lifted its position in Eastern by 1.0% in the first quarter. Minerva Advisors LLC now owns 505,987 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $12,812,000 after purchasing an additional 5,009 shares during the period. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its position in Eastern by 7,124.4% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,962 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $75,000 after purchasing an additional 2,921 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 76.99% of the company’s stock.

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.