The Eastern Company (NASDAQ:EML) Short Interest Update

The Eastern Company (NASDAQ:EML) saw a significant decline in short interest in March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 35,700 shares, a decline of 9.8% from the March 15th total of 39,600 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 11,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 3.2 days. Currently, 0.6% of the company’s stock are sold short.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

EML has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. TheStreet upgraded Eastern from a “c” rating to a “b-” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 20th. StockNews.com raised Eastern from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 14th.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in EML. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC raised its position in shares of Eastern by 157.7% during the 3rd quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 1,474 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $27,000 after acquiring an additional 902 shares in the last quarter. Barclays PLC increased its stake in Eastern by 134.7% in the fourth quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 2,370 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $52,000 after purchasing an additional 1,360 shares during the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. acquired a new stake in Eastern during the fourth quarter worth approximately $75,000. Comerica Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Eastern during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $66,000. Finally, UBS Group AG grew its position in shares of Eastern by 13.0% in the 4th quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 4,559 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $88,000 after buying an additional 524 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.99% of the company’s stock.

Eastern Price Performance

Shares of EML traded down $2.04 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $29.30. 22,077 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 12,254. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $27.89 and a two-hundred day moving average of $22.94. Eastern has a 52-week low of $16.10 and a 52-week high of $35.78. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a quick ratio of 1.24 and a current ratio of 2.63. The company has a market cap of $181.95 million, a PE ratio of 21.17 and a beta of 1.15.

Eastern (NASDAQ:EML) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, March 12th. The industrial products company reported $0.56 earnings per share for the quarter. The firm had revenue of $67.00 million during the quarter. Eastern had a net margin of 3.14% and a return on equity of 8.80%.

Eastern Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 15th were paid a dividend of $0.11 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 14th. This represents a $0.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.50%. Eastern’s payout ratio is 32.12%.

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.