The Eastern Company (NASDAQ:EML) is Minerva Advisors LLC’s 3rd Largest Position

Minerva Advisors LLC grew its stake in The Eastern Company (NASDAQ:EML) by 0.8% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 500,978 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after buying an additional 3,768 shares during the period. Eastern comprises approximately 7.8% of Minerva Advisors LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 3rd biggest position. Minerva Advisors LLC owned about 0.08% of Eastern worth $13,296,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of EML. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Eastern by 0.4% in 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 during the period. State Street Corp boosted its stake in shares of Eastern by 8.3% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 68,301 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $2,216,000 after acquiring an additional 5,225 shares during the period. Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC bought a new position in shares of Eastern in the third quarter worth about $1,667,000. De Lisle Partners LLP boosted its stake in shares of Eastern by 15.9% in the third quarter. De Lisle Partners LLP now owns 40,922 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $1,320,000 after acquiring an additional 5,600 shares during the period. Finally, Empowered Funds LLC boosted its stake in shares of Eastern by 4.8% in the fourth quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 29,755 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $790,000 after acquiring an additional 1,367 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.99% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, StockNews.com lowered Eastern from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th.

Eastern Price Performance

Shares of Eastern stock opened at $27.73 on Tuesday. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $27.39 and a 200 day moving average of $29.26. The Eastern Company has a 12 month low of $22.96 and a 12 month high of $35.78. The firm has a market cap of $171.45 million, a PE ratio of -26.92 and a beta of 0.98. The company has a current ratio of 2.64, a quick ratio of 1.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37.

Eastern Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 14th. Investors of record on Friday, February 14th will be paid a dividend of $0.11 per share. This represents a $0.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.59%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 14th. Eastern’s payout ratio is presently -42.72%.

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.