Eastern (EML) Competitors

Eastern (NASDAQ:EML) and Graham (NYSE:GHM) are both small-cap industrials companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their community ranking, dividends, analyst recommendations, risk, earnings, profitability, institutional ownership, media sentiment and valuation.

Is EML or GHM a better dividend stock?

Eastern pays an annual dividend of $0.44 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.9%. Graham pays an annual dividend of $0.44 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.9%. Eastern pays out -33.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Graham pays out 24.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Eastern is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Do institutionals and insiders believe in EML or GHM?

77.0% of Eastern shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 69.5% of Graham shares are owned by institutional investors. 17.0% of Eastern shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 5.7% of Graham shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Which has higher earnings & valuation, EML or GHM?

Eastern has higher revenue and earnings than Graham. Eastern is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Graham, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Eastern	$271.44M	0.53	$8.59M	-$1.32	-17.81
Graham	$209.90M	2.48	$4.56M	$1.82	26.20

Does the MarketBeat Community favor EML or GHM?

Graham received 77 more outperform votes than Eastern when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 80.77% of users gave Eastern an outperform vote while only 63.79% of users gave Graham an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Eastern	Outperform Votes 189 80.77%	Underperform Votes 45 19.23%
Graham	Outperform Votes 266 63.79%	Underperform Votes 151 36.21%

Do analysts recommend EML or GHM?

Graham has a consensus price target of $35.00, indicating a potential downside of 26.59%. Given Graham's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Graham is more favorable than Eastern.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Eastern	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	0.00
Graham	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.00

Does the media refer more to EML or GHM?

In the previous week, Graham had 26 more articles in the media than Eastern. MarketBeat recorded 42 mentions for Graham and 16 mentions for Eastern. Eastern's average media sentiment score of 0.85 beat Graham's score of 0.67 indicating that Eastern is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Eastern	6 Very Positive mention(s)	4 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	2 Negative mention(s)	1 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Graham	14 Very Positive mention(s)	6 Positive mention(s)	16 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	1 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Is EML or GHM more profitable?

Graham has a net margin of 4.60% compared to Eastern's net margin of -2.26%. Eastern's return on equity of 10.44% beat Graham's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Eastern	-2.26%	10.44%	5.42%
Graham	4.60%	9.35%	4.16%

Which has more volatility and risk, EML or GHM?

Eastern has a beta of 1.08, meaning that its stock price is 8% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Graham has a beta of 0.85, meaning that its stock price is 15% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Eastern beats Graham on 11 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.