How to buy The Eastern Company stock | $24.1

The Eastern Company is a tools & accessories business based in the US. The Eastern Company shares (EML) are listed on the NASDAQ and all prices are listed in US Dollars. The Eastern Company employs 1,399 staff and has a trailing 12-month revenue of around USD$248.7 million.

How to buy shares in The Eastern Company

1. Compare share trading platforms. If you're a beginner, look for a platform with low commissions, expert ratings and investment tools to track your portfolio. Narrow down top brands with our comparison table.
2. Open and fund your brokerage account. Complete an application with your personal and financial details, like your ID and bank information. Fund your account with a bank transfer, credit card or debit card.
3. Search for The Eastern Company. Find the stock by name or ticker symbol: EML. Research its history to confirm it's a solid investment against your financial goals.
4. Purchase now or later. Buy today with a market order or use a limit order to delay your purchase until The Eastern Company reaches your desired price. To spread out your purchase, look into dollar-cost averaging, which smooths out buying at consistent intervals and amounts.
5. Decide on how many to buy. At last close price of USD$24.1, weigh your budget against a diversified portfolio that can minimize risk through the market's ups and downs. You may be able to buy a fractional share of The Eastern Company, depending on your broker.
6. Check in on your investment. Congratulations, you own a part of The Eastern Company. Optimize your portfolio by tracking how your stock — and even the business — performs with an eye on the long term. You may be eligible for dividends and shareholder voting rights on directors and management that can affect your stock.

The Eastern Company share price

Use our graph to track the performance of EML stocks over time.

The Eastern Company shares at a glance

• Key figures

Information last updated 2020-12-26.

Latest market close	USD$24.1
52-week range	USD$15.1229 - USD$31.2808
50-day moving average	USD$23.0194
200-day moving average	USD$20.4636
Wall St. target price	N/A
PE ratio	17.1319
Dividend yield	USD$0.44 (1.79%)
Earnings per share (TTM)	USD$1.433

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Is it a good time to buy The Eastern Company stock?

The technical analysis gauge below displays real-time ratings for the timeframes you select. This is not a recommendation, however. It represents a technical analysis based on the most popular technical indicators: Moving Averages, Oscillators and Pivots. Finder might not concur and takes no responsibility.

Technical Analysis of The Eastern Company by TradingView

This chart is not advice or a guarantee of success. Rather, it gauges the real-time recommendations of three popular technical indicators: moving averages, oscillators and pivots. Finder is not responsible for how your stock performs.

The Eastern Company price performance over time

Historical closes compared with the close of $24.1 from 2020-12-31

1 week (2021-01-08)	0.96%
1 month (2020-12-15)	-4.33%
3 months (2020-10-15)	9.79%
6 months (2020-07-15)	35.62%

1 year (2020-01-15)	-21.11%
2 years (2019-01-15)	-3.41%
3 years (2018-01-12)	27.8
5 years (2016-01-15)	43.37%

Is The Eastern Company under- or over-valued?

Valuing The Eastern Company stock is incredibly difficult, and any metric has to be viewed as part of a bigger picture of The Eastern Company's overall performance. However, analysts commonly use some key metrics to help gauge the value of a stock.

The Eastern Company's P/E ratio

The Eastern Company's current share price divided by its per-share earnings (EPS) over a 12-month period gives a "trailing price/earnings ratio" of roughly 17x. In other words, The Eastern Company shares trade at around 17x recent earnings.

That's relatively low compared to, say, the trailing 12-month P/E ratio for the NASDAQ 100 at the end of 2019 (27.29). The low P/E ratio could mean that investors are pessimistic about the outlook for the shares or simply that they're under-valued.

The Eastern Company's EBITDA

The Eastern Company's EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation) is USD$26.6 million.

The EBITDA is a measure of a The Eastern Company's overall financial performance and is widely used to measure a its profitability.

The Eastern Company financials

Revenue TTM	USD$248.7 million
Operating margin TTM	7.17%
Gross profit TTM	USD$61.9 million
Return on assets TTM	4.05%
Return on equity TTM	8.55%
Profit margin	3.6%
Book value	$16.993
Market capitalisation	USD$153.3 million

TTM: trailing 12 months

Shorting The Eastern Company shares

There are currently 57,517 The Eastern Company shares held short by investors – that's known as The Eastern Company's "short interest". This figure is 6.1% up from 54,223 last month.

There are a few different ways that this level of interest in shorting The Eastern Company shares can be evaluated.

The Eastern Company's "short interest ratio" (SIR)

The Eastern Company's "short interest ratio" (SIR) is the quantity of The Eastern Company shares currently shorted divided by the average quantity of The Eastern Company shares traded daily (recently around 12867.337807606). The Eastern Company's SIR currently stands at 4.47. In other words for every 100,000 The Eastern Company shares traded daily on the market, roughly 4470 shares are currently held short.

However The Eastern Company's short interest can also be evaluated against the total number of The Eastern Company shares, or, against the total number of tradable The Eastern Company shares (the shares that aren't held by "insiders" or major long-term shareholders – also known as the "float"). In this case The Eastern Company's short interest could be expressed as 0.01% of the outstanding shares (for every 100,000 The Eastern Company shares in existence, roughly 10 shares are currently held short) or 0.0137% of the tradable shares (for every 100,000 tradable The Eastern Company shares, roughly 14 shares are currently held short).

Such a low SIR usually points to an optimistic outlook for the share price, with fewer people currently willing to bet against The Eastern Company.

Find out more about how you can short The Eastern Company stock.

The Eastern Company share dividends

Dividend payout ratio: 131.85% of net profits

Recently The Eastern Company has paid out, on average, around 131.85% of net profits as dividends. That has enabled analysts to estimate a "forward annual dividend yield" of 1.79% of the current stock value. This means that over a year, based on recent payouts (which are sadly no guarantee of future payouts), The Eastern Company shareholders could enjoy a 1.79% return on their shares, in the form of dividend payments. In The Eastern Company's case, that would currently equate to about $0.44 per share.

The Eastern Company's payout ratio would broadly be considered high, and as such this stock could appeal to those looking to generate an income. Bear in mind however that companies should normally also look to re-invest a decent amount of net profits to ensure future growth.

The Eastern Company's most recent dividend payout was on 15 December 2020. The latest dividend was paid out to all shareholders who bought their shares by 17 November 2020 (the "ex-dividend date").

Have The Eastern Company's shares ever split?

The Eastern Company's shares were split on a 3:2 basis on 18 October 2006. So if you had owned 2 shares the day before before the split, the next day you'd have owned 3 shares. This wouldn't directly have changed the overall worth of your The Eastern Company shares – just the quantity. However, indirectly, the new 33.3% lower share price could have impacted the market appetite for The Eastern Company shares which in turn could have impacted The Eastern Company's share price.

The Eastern Company share price volatility

Over the last 12 months, The Eastern Company's shares have ranged in value from as little as $15.1229 up to $31.2808. A popular way to gauge a stock's volatility is its "beta".

Beta is a measure of a share's volatility in relation to the market. The market (NASDAQ average) beta is 1, while The Eastern Company's is 1.0766. This would suggest that The Eastern Company's shares are a little bit more volatile than the average for this exchange and represent, relatively-speaking, a slightly higher risk (but potentially also market-beating returns).

The Eastern Company overview

The Eastern Company designs, manufactures, and sells various engineered solutions for various industrial markets in the United States and internationally. The company operates through three segments: Industrial Hardware, Security Products, and Metal Products. The Industrial Hardware segment designs, manufactures, and markets custom and standard vehicular and industrial hardware, including turnkey returnable packaging solutions; passenger restraint and vehicular locks, latches, and hinges; mirrors and mirror-cameras; light-weight sleeper boxes; and truck bodies. It also designs and manufactures fasteners and other closure devices to secure access doors on various type of industrial equipment, such as metal cabinets, machinery housings, and electronic instruments. This segment sells its products directly to original equipment manufacturers (OEM's) and distributors through in-house sales personnel and outside sales representatives. The Security Products segment designs and manufactures engineered security and access solutions in the form of mechanical, electronic, and wireless products for OEM's contract equipment manufacturers and industrial distributors; designs, manufactures, and markets timers, drop meters, coin chutes, money boxes, meter cases, mobile payment apps, smart cards, value transfer stations, smart card readers, card management software, and access control units that are used primarily in the commercial laundry market; and supplies printed circuit boards and other electronic assemblies to OEMs in various industries. The Metal Products segment designs and manufactures ductile and malleable iron castings, such as valves, rings, torque screws, bean clamps, and concrete anchors for a range of industrial markets, including oil, water, gas; and truck/automotive rail, and military/aerospace, as well as offers expansion shells to support the roofs of underground mines. The Eastern Company was founded in 1858 and is based in Naugatuck, Connecticut.

Frequently asked questions

• What percentage of The Eastern Company is owned by insiders or institutions?

  Currently 5.289% of The Eastern Company shares are held by insiders and 65.076% by institutions.

• How many people work for The Eastern Company?

  Latest data suggests 1,399 work at The Eastern Company.

• When does the fiscal year end for The Eastern Company?

  The Eastern Company's fiscal year ends in December.

• Where is The Eastern Company based?

  The Eastern Company's address is: 112 Bridge Street, Naugatuck, CT, United States, 06770

• What is The Eastern Company's ISIN number?

  The Eastern Company's international securities identification number is: US2763171046

• What is The Eastern Company's CUSIP number?

  The Eastern Company's Committee on Uniform Securities Identification Procedures number is: 276317104