Frederick D. Disanto Purchases 1,000 Shares of Eastern (NASDAQ:EML) Stock

Key Points

• Director Frederick D. Disanto purchased 1,000 shares of Eastern Company at an average price of $22.99 each, totaling $22,990, increasing his ownership by 1.23% to 82,449 shares.
• Eastern Company reported earnings of $0.57 per share for the last quarter, surpassing analysts' expectations of $0.54 and generating revenue of $70.16 million.
• The company announced a quarterly dividend of $0.11 per share, with the dividend yield standing at 1.9%, and the payment set for September 15th.

Eastern Company (The) (NASDAQ:EML - Get Free Report) Director Frederick D. Disanto bought 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 12th. The shares were bought at an average price of $22.99 per share, for a total transaction of $22,990.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 82,449 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,895,502.51. This represents a 1.23% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink.

Eastern Stock Performance

NASDAQ EML traded up $0.26 on Tuesday, hitting $22.85. 2,108 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 9,974. The company has a market capitalization of $139.39 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -17.31 and a beta of 1.13. The company has a current ratio of 2.67, a quick ratio of 1.33 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28. The business's 50 day moving average price is $23.22 and its 200-day moving average price is $24.01. Eastern Company has a 52-week low of $19.06 and a 52-week high of $35.03.

Eastern (NASDAQ:EML - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, August 5th. The industrial products company reported $0.57 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.54 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $70.16 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $68.87 million. Eastern had a positive return on equity of 10.44% and a negative net margin of 3.06%.

Eastern Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 15th. Investors of record on Friday, August 15th will be given a dividend of $0.11 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, August 15th. This represents a $0.44 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.9%. Eastern's payout ratio is -33.33%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Eastern

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its holdings in shares of Eastern by 165.2% in the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 19,221 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $510,000 after purchasing an additional 11,974 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Eastern by 0.9% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 128,232 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $3,404,000 after purchasing an additional 1,124 shares during the last quarter. Barclays PLC increased its holdings in shares of Eastern by 13.8% in the fourth quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 7,824 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $207,000 after purchasing an additional 949 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings in shares of Eastern by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 391,042 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $10,378,000 after purchasing an additional 3,686 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Tower Research Capital LLC TRC increased its holdings in shares of Eastern by 218.2% in the fourth quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 1,120 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $30,000 after purchasing an additional 768 shares during the last quarter. 76.99% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, Wall Street Zen downgraded Eastern from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 8th.

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.