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

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

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Empowered Funds LLC raised its stake in shares of Eastern by 72.7% in the third quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 28,388 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $921,000 after acquiring an additional 11,952 shares in the last quarter. Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Eastern in the third quarter valued at $1,667,000. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. raised its stake in shares of Eastern by 45.3% in the third quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. now owns 13,522 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $439,000 after acquiring an additional 4,218 shares in the last quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets raised its stake in shares of Eastern by 719.3% in the third quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 7,431 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $241,000 after acquiring an additional 6,524 shares in the last quarter. Finally, MetLife Investment Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Eastern by 129.1% in the third quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC now owns 3,086 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $100,000 after acquiring an additional 1,739 shares in the last quarter. 76.99% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Eastern Trading Up 1.1 %

Shares of Eastern stock opened at $26.90 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37, a quick ratio of 1.42 and a current ratio of 2.64. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $27.39 and a 200 day moving average of $29.04. Eastern has a fifty-two week low of $23.15 and a fifty-two week high of $35.78. The firm has a market capitalization of $164.79 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -26.12 and a beta of 0.97.

Eastern (NASDAQ:EML) last released its quarterly 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 company had revenue of $66.70 million for the quarter.

Eastern Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 14th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 14th were paid a dividend of $0.11 per share. This represents a $0.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.64%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 14th. Eastern’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is -33.08%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Separately, StockNews.com lowered Eastern from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report 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.