Financial Contrast: Eastern (NASDAQ:EML) vs. MSA Safety Incorporporated (NYSE:MSA)

Eastern (NASDAQ:EML) and MSA Safety Incorporporated (NYSE:MSA) are both industrials companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, dividends, earnings, profitability, valuation and risk.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings and price targets for Eastern and MSA Safety Incorporporated, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Eastern	0	0	0	0	0.00
MSA Safety Incorporporated	0	3	2	0	2.40

MSA Safety Incorporporated has a consensus target price of $189.20, suggesting a potential upside of 11.64%. Given MSA Safety Incorporporated’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe MSA Safety Incorporporated is more favorable than Eastern.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Eastern and MSA Safety Incorporporated”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Eastern	$269.05 million	0.49	-$8.53 million	($1.32)	-16.30
MSA Safety Incorporporated	$1.81 billion	3.67	$284.97 million	$7.01	24.18

MSA Safety Incorporporated has higher revenue and earnings than Eastern. Eastern is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than MSA Safety Incorporporated, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Volatility & Risk

Eastern has a beta of 1.13, meaning that its stock price is 13% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, MSA Safety Incorporporated has a beta of 0.96, meaning that its stock price is 4% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

77.0% of Eastern shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 92.5% of MSA Safety Incorporporated shares are held by institutional investors. 17.0% of Eastern shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.7% of MSA Safety Incorporporated shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares Eastern and MSA Safety Incorporporated’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Eastern	-3.06%	10.44%	5.38%
MSA Safety Incorporporated	15.15%	26.03%	13.16%

Dividends

Eastern pays an annual dividend of $0.44 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.0%. MSA Safety Incorporporated pays an annual dividend of $2.12 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.3%. Eastern pays out -33.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. MSA Safety Incorporporated pays out 30.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. MSA Safety Incorporporated has raised its dividend for 56 consecutive years. Eastern is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Summary

MSA Safety Incorporporated beats Eastern on 13 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

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. It also provides rotary latches, compression latches, draw latches, hinges, camlocks, key switches, padlocks, and handles; and development and program management services for custom electromechanical and mechanical systems for original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and customer applications. In addition, the company designs and manufactures proprietary vision technology for OEMs and aftermarket applications, as well as offers aftermarket components to the heavy- and medium-duty truck, motorhome, and bus markets. The Eastern Company was founded in 1858 and is based in Shelton, Connecticut.

About MSA Safety Incorporporated

MSA Safety Incorporated develops, manufactures, and supplies safety products and technology solutions that protect people and facility infrastructures in the fire service, energy, utility, construction, and industrial manufacturing applications, as well as heating, ventilation, air conditioning, and refrigeration industries worldwide. The company's core product offerings include fixed gas and flame detection systems, such as gas detection monitoring systems, and flame detectors and open-path infrared gas detectors; breathing apparatus products, including self-contained breathing apparatus; hand-held portable gas detection instruments to detect the presence or absence of various gases in the air; industrial head protection products; firefighter helmets and protective apparel; and fall protection equipment, such as confined space equipment, harnesses, lanyards, and self-retracting lifelines, as well as engineered systems. In addition, the company offers air-purifying respirators, eye and face protection products, ballistic helmets, and gas masks. It serves distributors and end-users through indirect and direct sales channels. The company offers its products under the V-Gard, Cairns, and Gallet brand names. MSA Safety Incorporated was founded in 1914 and is based in Cranberry Township, Pennsylvania.