The Eastern Company (NASDAQ:EML) Short Interest Update

The Eastern Company (NASDAQ:EML) was the target of a large decrease in short interest during the month of March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 35,700 shares, a decrease of 9.8% from the March 15th total of 39,600 shares. Currently, 0.6% of the shares of the company are sold short. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 11,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 3.2 days.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC boosted its position in shares of Eastern by 157.7% during the 3rd quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 1,474 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $27,000 after purchasing an additional 902 shares in the last quarter. Barclays PLC lifted its stake in Eastern by 134.7% in the fourth quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 2,370 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $52,000 after buying an additional 1,360 shares during the period. Comerica Bank bought a new position in shares of Eastern during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $66,000. Victory Capital Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Eastern during the 4th quarter worth approximately $75,000. Finally, UBS Group AG increased its stake in shares of Eastern by 13.0% in the 4th quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 4,559 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $88,000 after acquiring an additional 524 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 76.99% of the company’s stock.

Eastern Price Performance

EML stock traded down $2.04 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $29.30. 22,077 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 12,254. Eastern has a 52 week low of $16.10 and a 52 week high of $35.78. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $27.89 and a 200 day moving average price of $22.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a current ratio of 2.63 and a quick ratio of 1.24. The stock has a market capitalization of $181.95 million, a PE ratio of 21.17 and a beta of 1.15.

Eastern (NASDAQ:EML) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, March 12th. The industrial products company reported $0.56 EPS for the quarter. Eastern had a net margin of 3.14% and a return on equity of 8.80%. The business had revenue of $67.00 million for the quarter.

Eastern Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 15th were issued a $0.11 dividend. This represents a $0.44 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.50%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, February 14th. Eastern’s payout ratio is presently 32.12%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts recently commented on the stock. TheStreet upgraded shares of Eastern from a “c” rating to a “b-” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 20th. StockNews.com raised shares of Eastern from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a 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.