The Eastern Company (NASDAQ:EML) Shares Bought by Geode Capital Management LLC

Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of The Eastern Company (NASDAQ:EML) by 0.9% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 128,232 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,124 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC owned about 2.07% of Eastern worth $3,404,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of EML. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its stake in shares of Eastern by 165.2% during the 4th quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 19,221 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $510,000 after purchasing an additional 11,974 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its stake in shares of Eastern by 8.3% during 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 in the last quarter. Barclays PLC increased its stake in shares of Eastern by 277.7% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 6,875 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $223,000 after purchasing an additional 5,055 shares in the last quarter. Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC increased its stake in shares of Eastern by 7.8% during the 4th quarter. Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC now owns 55,395 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $1,470,000 after purchasing an additional 4,030 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Minerva Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Eastern by 0.8% during the 4th quarter. Minerva Advisors LLC now owns 500,978 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $13,296,000 after purchasing an additional 3,768 shares in the last quarter. 76.99% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

Eastern Trading Down 0.8 %

Shares of EML opened at $19.61 on Monday. The Eastern Company has a fifty-two week low of $19.12 and a fifty-two week high of $35.03. The company has a market capitalization of $120.13 million, a PE ratio of -19.04 and a beta of 0.89. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $24.92 and a two-hundred day moving average of $27.34. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37, a quick ratio of 1.42 and a current ratio of 2.64.

Eastern (NASDAQ:EML) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, March 11th. The industrial products company reported $0.42 EPS 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. Investors of record on Friday, February 14th were given a dividend of $0.11 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 14th. This represents a $0.44 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.24%. Eastern’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently -33.08%.

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.