The Eastern Company (NASDAQ:EML) Short Interest Update

The Eastern Company (NASDAQ:EML) saw a significant decrease in short interest in February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 32,200 shares, a decrease of 26.0% from the February 13th total of 43,500 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 10,300 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 3.1 days. Approximately 0.6% of the shares of the stock are short sold.

Eastern Stock Down 0.8 %

Shares of EML stock traded down $0.22 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $26.62. 6,494 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 23,305. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37, a current ratio of 2.64 and a quick ratio of 1.42. The business’s fifty day moving average is $27.37 and its two-hundred day moving average is $29.06. Eastern has a 12-month low of $23.15 and a 12-month high of $35.78. The firm has a market capitalization of $164.59 million, a P/E ratio of -25.84 and a beta of 0.97.

Eastern (NASDAQ:EML) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, March 11th. The industrial products company reported $0.42 earnings per share for the quarter. Eastern had a positive return on equity of 10.44% and a negative net margin of 2.26%. The firm had revenue of $66.70 million during the quarter.

Eastern Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 14th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 14th were issued a $0.11 dividend. This represents a $0.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.65%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 14th. Eastern’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently -42.72%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Eastern

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC increased its position in shares of Eastern by 218.2% in the fourth quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 1,120 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $30,000 after buying an additional 768 shares in the last quarter. Deutsche Bank AG purchased a new stake in Eastern during the 4th quarter worth about $43,000. MetLife Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in Eastern by 129.1% in the 3rd quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC now owns 3,086 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $100,000 after buying an additional 1,739 shares during the period. Barclays PLC grew its holdings in Eastern by 13.8% in the 4th quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 7,824 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $207,000 after buying an additional 949 shares during the period. Finally, BNP Paribas Financial Markets grew its holdings in Eastern by 12.3% in the 4th quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 8,346 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $222,000 after buying an additional 915 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.99% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

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

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.