Eastern Company (The) Common Stock (EML)

FairStock Score: 34/100 — RISKY

Key Financials

AI Analysis

AI-generated, general educational analysis — not personal investment advice.

I look for durable businesses bought at sensible prices. Eastern makes engineered returnable packaging and tooling for industrial customers. It is small: a $145.1M market cap at the 2026-10-13 close, and its economics are not those of a wide-moat compounder. FairStock's return calculations show a 6.33% ROE and 2.54% ROCE, too low for my taste. Financial health is mixed. Debt-to-equity is 0.47, and FairStock's Altman Z-score is 2.24, which suggests some balance-sheet caution. The cash flow is better: $15.1M of trailing free cash flow is a 10.4% FCF yield against the market cap. Profits have been uneven. It lost $8.5M in fiscal year 2024, the period ended 2024-12-28, then earned $7.1M in fiscal year 2025, the period ended 2026-01-03. In fiscal Q2 2026, the quarter ended 2026-07-04, revenue was $61.8M and net income was $5.6M, or $0.94 diluted EPS, versus $70.2M revenue and $3.4M net income in fiscal Q2 2025, the quarter ended 2025-06-28. That supports the FairStock turnaround label. Valuation is not demanding: at the close, P/B was 1.12, EV/EBITDA 9.80, and the price was about 5.1% below FairStock's Graham Number of $25.42. But P/E of 18.14 is only fair, and revenue in fiscal 2025 was lower than in fiscal 2024. This is a modestly priced cyclical turnaround, not a wonderful business at a wonderful price.

In plain English: Eastern makes engineered packaging and tooling for industrial customers. The business is small and profits have bounced around; it lost money in fiscal 2024 but earned a profit in fiscal 2025 and in the latest reported quarter. At the recent price, the shares look roughly fair to slightly cheap compared with the company's earnings, book value, and cash flow, but the business itself does not look very strong.

The full AI analysis, bull and bear case and key monitorables are in FairStock Pro.

Data as of 2026-10-13 close · note generated 2026-10-15 · model deepseek-flash

Sources (SEC EDGAR): fiscal Q2 2026 10-Q (period ended 2026-07-04) · fiscal Q1 2026 10-Q (period ended 2026-04-04) · fiscal Q3 2025 10-Q (period ended 2025-09-27) · fiscal Q2 2025 10-Q (period ended 2025-06-28) · FY2025 10-K/A (period ended 2026-01-03) · FY2024 10-K/A (period ended 2024-12-28) · FY2023 10-K (period ended 2023-12-30)

Fundamentals from company filings and market-data providers; prices are end-of-day, not real-time. AI-generated analysis is general and educational — not personal investment advice. Scoring methodology · Score test · Disclaimer