Short Interest in The Eastern Company (NASDAQ:EML) Declines By 26.0%

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

Eastern Stock Performance

EML opened at $26.90 on Tuesday. 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 firm has a fifty day moving average price of $27.39 and a 200 day moving average price of $29.04. Eastern has a 1 year low of $23.15 and a 1 year high of $35.78. The stock has a market cap of $164.79 million, a P/E ratio of -26.12 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 EPS for the quarter. The company had revenue of $66.70 million during the quarter. Eastern had a negative net margin of 2.26% and a positive return on equity of 10.44%.

Eastern Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 14th. Investors of record on Friday, February 14th were issued a $0.11 dividend. This represents a $0.44 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.64%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 14th. Eastern’s payout ratio is presently -33.08%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Eastern

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position 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 valued at $4,126,000 after purchasing an additional 449 shares in the last quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC grew 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 purchasing an additional 768 shares in the last quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets grew its position in shares of Eastern by 12.3% in the fourth quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 8,346 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $222,000 after purchasing an additional 915 shares in the last quarter. Barclays PLC grew its position in shares of Eastern by 13.8% in the fourth quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 7,824 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $207,000 after purchasing an additional 949 shares in the last quarter. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. grew its position in shares of Eastern by 4.2% in the fourth quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 23,491 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $623,000 after purchasing an additional 955 shares in the last quarter. 76.99% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, StockNews.com cut shares of Eastern from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note 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.