Barclays PLC Buys 5,055 Shares of The Eastern Company (NASDAQ:EML)

Barclays PLC raised its stake in shares of The Eastern Company (NASDAQ:EML) by 277.7% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 6,875 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after acquiring an additional 5,055 shares during the quarter. Barclays PLC owned approximately 0.11% of Eastern worth $223,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in EML. Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Eastern in the third quarter valued at $1,667,000. Victory Capital Management Inc. acquired a new stake in Eastern in the second quarter worth about $1,190,000. American Century Companies Inc. acquired a new stake in Eastern in the second quarter worth about $632,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its position in Eastern by 37.9% in the second 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 during the period. Finally, Empowered Funds LLC increased its position in Eastern by 72.7% in the third quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 28,388 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $921,000 after purchasing an additional 11,952 shares during the period. 76.99% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, StockNews.com lowered Eastern from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th.

Eastern Trading Down 2.7 %

NASDAQ:EML opened at $26.06 on Tuesday. The Eastern Company has a fifty-two week low of $21.52 and a fifty-two week high of $35.78. 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 stock has a market capitalization of $161.13 million, a PE ratio of -25.30 and a beta of 0.99. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $28.66 and its 200-day simple moving average is $29.27.

Eastern Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 13th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 15th were issued a dividend of $0.11 per share. This represents a $0.44 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.69%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 15th. Eastern’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently -42.72%.

Eastern 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.