Eastern (NASDAQ:EML) Lowered to Buy Rating by StockNews.com

StockNews.com lowered shares of Eastern (NASDAQ:EML) from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating in a research report report published on Thursday morning.

Eastern Stock Up 2.5 %

Shares of NASDAQ:EML opened at $28.31 on Thursday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $27.88 and a 200 day simple moving average of $29.36. Eastern has a 52 week low of $22.63 and a 52 week high of $35.78. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37, a quick ratio of 1.42 and a current ratio of 2.64. The company has a market cap of $174.96 million, a PE ratio of -27.49 and a beta of 0.99.

Eastern (NASDAQ:EML) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The industrial products company reported $0.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. Eastern had a positive return on equity of 10.44% and a negative net margin of 2.26%. The company had revenue of $71.27 million during the quarter.

Eastern Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 13th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 15th were issued a $0.11 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 15th. This represents a $0.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.55%. Eastern’s dividend payout ratio is -42.72%.

Institutional Trading of Eastern

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in EML. Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC purchased a new stake in Eastern in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $1,667,000. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Eastern by 0.4% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 127,108 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $4,126,000 after acquiring an additional 449 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its position in Eastern by 8.3% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 68,301 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $2,216,000 after purchasing an additional 5,225 shares during the last quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Eastern during the third quarter valued at $231,000. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. purchased a new position in Eastern in the second quarter valued at about $632,000. 76.99% of the stock is currently 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.