Crane (NYSE:CR) Receives Average Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Brokerages

Shares of Crane (NYSE:CR) have earned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the six research firms that are covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and four have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price objective among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $125.00.

CR has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Bank of America raised their target price on shares of Crane from $110.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 5th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Crane from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, April 5th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on shares of Crane from $135.00 to $150.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Crane

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Crane by 0.3% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,894,887 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $578,282,000 after buying an additional 16,167 shares in the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. boosted its position in Crane by 1.2% during the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 4,071,875 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $462,158,000 after purchasing an additional 46,506 shares during the period. State Street Corp boosted its position in Crane by 93.0% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,666,141 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $193,106,000 after purchasing an additional 1,285,048 shares during the period. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL boosted its position in Crane by 76.8% during the second quarter. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL now owns 2,408,030 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $179,899,000 after purchasing an additional 1,046,295 shares during the period. Finally, Capital World Investors boosted its position in Crane by 4.0% during the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 2,095,540 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $247,567,000 after purchasing an additional 79,710 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Crane Stock Performance

Shares of CR stock opened at $130.09 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a current ratio of 1.18. The company has a market capitalization of $7.43 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.25, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.93 and a beta of 1.49. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $129.46 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $114.20. Crane has a 52 week low of $67.28 and a 52 week high of $139.34.

Crane (NYSE:CR) last announced its earnings results on Monday, January 29th. The conglomerate reported $0.90 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.81 by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $532.90 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $519.55 million. Crane had a net margin of 13.10% and a return on equity of 24.45%. On average, analysts expect that Crane will post 7.87 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Crane Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 13th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 29th were paid a $0.205 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, February 28th. This is a boost from Crane’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.18. This represents a $0.82 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.63%. Crane’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 22.22%.

Crane Company Profile

Crane Company, together with its subsidiaries, manufactures and sells engineered industrial products in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Continental Europe, and internationally. The company operates in three segments: Aerospace & Electronics, Process Flow Technologies, and Engineered Materials.