Eastern Company (the) Stock Earnings Reports

Key points for investors: Eastern reported a weak Q3 FY2025 with revenue from continuing operations of $55.3M, down 22% year-over-year, and EPS of $0.10 (net income $0.6M). Primary drivers of the decline were significant pullbacks in Class 8 truck OEM production (OE truck production down ~36%) and reduced automotive model launches (13 fewer platform launches, a 34% reduction year-over-year), which heavily impacted returnable transport packaging and mirror/truck assemblies. Backlog fell 24% to $74.3M. Gross margin contracted to 22.3% (from 25.5%) due to higher raw material costs on a mirror project and lower volumes. Management executed proactive cost actions (workforce optimization, SG&A reductions, Big 3 footprint reorganization, sale of an underperforming unit) that produced $1.8M of savings in the quarter. Balance sheet and capital actions: roughly 118,000 shares repurchased (~2% of outstanding), $7M of debt reduction, dividend paid, and a new $100M revolving credit facility with Citizens Bank to provide liquidity and optionality for growth/M&A. Senior net leverage increased to 1.64x from 1.23x a year earlier. Positive offsets: the USPS vehicle program (Oshkosh) ramped into full production and was a meaningful bright spot. Outlook: management sees early/Q4 marginal improvement in truck volumes but is planning for a soft first half of 2026 with recovery later in 2026; they remain focused on margin recovery as volumes normalize and are pursuing disciplined M&A and market diversification.