Insider Buying: The Eastern Company (NASDAQ:EML) Director Buys $18,717.48 in Stock

The Eastern Company (NASDAQ:EML) Director Frederick D. Disanto purchased 654 shares of Eastern stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 13th. The stock was bought at an average price of $28.62 per share, for a total transaction of $18,717.48. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 68,162 shares in the company, valued at $1,950,796.44. The trade was a 0.97 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website.

Eastern Trading Down 3.6 %

EML opened at $29.14 on Thursday. 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 Eastern Company has a twelve month low of $20.50 and a twelve month high of $35.78. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $30.01 and its two-hundred day moving average is $29.24. The firm has a market cap of $180.17 million, a PE ratio of -28.29 and a beta of 0.98.

Eastern Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 13th. Shareholders 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 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.51%. Eastern’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently -42.72%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, StockNews.com cut Eastern from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Eastern

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings in Eastern by 2.3% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 386,281 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $9,838,000 after buying an additional 8,835 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Eastern by 0.4% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 127,108 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $4,126,000 after acquiring an additional 449 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its stake in Eastern by 8.3% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 68,301 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $2,216,000 after purchasing an additional 5,225 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its holdings in Eastern by 37.9% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 52,259 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $1,331,000 after purchasing an additional 14,373 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Eastern in the 3rd quarter valued at about $1,667,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.99% of the company’s stock.

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.