Eastern (NASDAQ:EML) Director Purchases $22,830.00 in Stock

Key Points

• Director Frederick Disanto of Eastern Company purchased 1,000 shares at an average price of $22.83, increasing his total holdings to 87,449 shares.
• Eastern reported earnings of $0.57 per share for the last quarter, exceeding estimates, with revenues of $70.16 million.
• The company announced a quarterly dividend of $0.11 per share, representing an annualized yield of 2.0%, payable on September 15th.

Eastern Company (The) (NASDAQ:EML - Get Free Report) Director Frederick D. Disanto acquired 1,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 19th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $22.83 per share, with a total value of $22,830.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director directly owned 87,449 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,996,460.67. This represents a 1.16% increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link.

Eastern Stock Up 9.1%

Shares of NASDAQ:EML traded up $2.02 on Friday, reaching $24.29. The company had a trading volume of 21,368 shares, compared to its average volume of 10,143. The stock has a market capitalization of $148.12 million, a P/E ratio of -18.40 and a beta of 1.13. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $23.18 and a 200 day moving average price of $23.90. Eastern Company has a twelve month low of $19.06 and a twelve month high of $35.03. The company has a quick ratio of 1.33, a current ratio of 2.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28.

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

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 paid a dividend of $0.11 per share. This represents a $0.44 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.8%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, August 15th. Eastern's dividend payout ratio is presently -33.33%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Eastern

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Minerva Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Eastern by 3.8% in the 2nd quarter. Minerva Advisors LLC now owns 525,053 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $11,982,000 after purchasing an additional 19,066 shares in the last quarter. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL lifted its holdings in Eastern by 1.8% during the 2nd quarter. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL now owns 511,218 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $11,666,000 after purchasing an additional 8,999 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its holdings in Eastern by 1.0% during the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 391,042 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $10,378,000 after purchasing an additional 3,686 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Eastern by 6.3% in the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 138,918 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $3,171,000 after buying an additional 8,205 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bridgeway Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Eastern by 1.2% during the fourth quarter. Bridgeway Capital Management LLC now owns 84,256 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $2,236,000 after buying an additional 967 shares during the last quarter. 76.99% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.