HighTower Advisors LLC Purchases New Position in The Eastern Company (NASDAQ:EML)

HighTower Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of The Eastern Company (NASDAQ:EML) during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm acquired 7,100 shares of the industrial products company’s stock, valued at approximately $231,000.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. MetLife Investment Management LLC grew its position in shares of Eastern by 129.1% during the 3rd quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC now owns 3,086 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $100,000 after buying an additional 1,739 shares in the last quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. lifted its stake in 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 worth $439,000 after acquiring an additional 4,218 shares during the period. Acadian Asset Management LLC bought a new position in Eastern during the 2nd quarter worth about $110,000. Rhumbline Advisers purchased a new position in Eastern during the 2nd quarter valued at about $134,000. Finally, De Lisle Partners LLP increased its position in Eastern by 15.9% during the 3rd quarter. De Lisle Partners LLP now owns 40,922 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $1,320,000 after purchasing an additional 5,600 shares during the period. 76.99% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Eastern Stock Up 1.4 %

Shares of NASDAQ EML opened at $27.41 on Wednesday. The Eastern Company has a 12-month low of $20.50 and a 12-month high of $35.78. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $29.72 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $29.24. The stock has a market capitalization of $169.48 million, a PE ratio of -26.61 and a beta of 0.99. The company has a current ratio of 2.64, a quick ratio of 1.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37.

Eastern Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 13th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 15th were issued a $0.11 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 15th. This represents a $0.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.61%. Eastern’s dividend payout ratio is presently -42.72%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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

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.