The Eastern Company (NASDAQ:EML) CEO Buys $67,865.59 in Stock

The Eastern Company (NASDAQ:EML) CEO Mark Anthony Hernandez bought 2,341 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 16th. The stock was bought at an average price of $28.99 per share, with a total value of $67,865.59. Following the completion of the purchase, the chief executive officer now owns 35,249 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,021,868.51. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link.

Eastern Price Performance

NASDAQ:EML traded down $0.62 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $29.01. 17,534 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 15,040. The Eastern Company has a one year low of $16.10 and a one year high of $35.78. The company has a market capitalization of $180.73 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.74 and a beta of 1.16. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $30.59 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $25.06. The company has a current ratio of 2.63, a quick ratio of 1.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30.

Eastern (NASDAQ:EML) last announced its earnings results on Monday, May 6th. The industrial products company reported $0.31 EPS for the quarter. Eastern had a return on equity of 8.44% and a net margin of 3.69%. The firm had revenue of $67.93 million for the quarter.

Eastern Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 17th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, May 15th will be issued a $0.11 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, May 14th. This represents a $0.44 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.52%. Eastern’s dividend payout ratio is currently 27.85%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of EML. Minerva Advisors LLC raised its stake in Eastern by 3.5% during the 3rd quarter. Minerva Advisors LLC now owns 427,460 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $7,695,000 after purchasing an additional 14,284 shares during the period. Victory Capital Management Inc. acquired a new stake in Eastern during the 4th quarter valued at $75,000. Ancora Advisors LLC raised its stake in Eastern by 1.8% during the 1st quarter. Ancora Advisors LLC now owns 69,047 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $2,354,000 after purchasing an additional 1,250 shares during the period. Finally, Empowered Funds LLC raised its stake in Eastern by 7.3% during the 1st quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 15,356 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $523,000 after purchasing an additional 1,050 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 76.99% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on EML. TheStreet upgraded Eastern from a “c” rating to a “b-” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 20th. StockNews.com upgraded Eastern from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 14th.

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.