Alps Advisors Inc. Decreases Position in Crane $CR

Alps Advisors Inc. trimmed its holdings in Crane (NYSE:CR) by 24.5% in the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 31,485 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after selling 10,231 shares during the quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. owned about 0.05% of Crane worth $5,798,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in CR. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Crane in the 2nd quarter valued at $190,533,000. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Crane by 0.6% in the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 864,230 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $164,135,000 after acquiring an additional 4,744 shares during the last quarter. Select Equity Group L.P. boosted its stake in Crane by 1.1% in the second quarter. Select Equity Group L.P. now owns 736,943 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $139,938,000 after acquiring an additional 8,151 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Crane by 8.2% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 489,810 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $90,196,000 after purchasing an additional 37,026 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Crane by 23.6% during the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 440,817 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $67,524,000 after purchasing an additional 84,278 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CR has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $238.00 target price on shares of Crane in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Wolfe Research set a $215.00 price objective on Crane and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, December 4th. CJS Securities raised shares of Crane to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, December 11th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on shares of Crane from $200.00 to $201.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, January 23rd. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Crane in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have issued a Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $224.00.

Crane Stock Up 2.0%

CR stock opened at $200.06 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $11.52 billion, a PE ratio of 26.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.93 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a fifty day moving average of $192.68 and a 200-day moving average of $188.68. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a current ratio of 1.18. Crane has a one year low of $127.04 and a one year high of $214.31.

Crane (NYSE:CR) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, January 26th. The conglomerate reported $1.53 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.43 by $0.10. Crane had a net margin of 13.10% and a return on equity of 24.45%. The firm had revenue of $581.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $572.16 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.38 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.8% on a year-over-year basis. Crane has set its FY 2026 guidance at 6.550-6.75 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Crane will post 7.87 EPS for the current year.

Crane Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 11th. Investors of record on Friday, February 27th will be issued a dividend of $0.255 per share. This is a boost from Crane’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.23. This represents a $1.02 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 27th. Crane’s dividend payout ratio is currently 16.32%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Crane news, Director Susan D. Lynch bought 150 shares of Crane stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 29th. The stock was bought at an average price of $182.22 per share, with a total value of $27,333.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director owned 220 shares in the company, valued at $40,088.40. The trade was a 214.29% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Max H. Mitchell bought 1,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 30th. The shares were bought at an average price of $183.71 per share, for a total transaction of $183,710.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 410,667 shares in the company, valued at approximately $75,443,634.57. This represents a 0.24% increase in their position. Additional details regarding this purchase are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last three months, insiders have bought 5,464 shares of company stock worth $987,470. 2.12% of the stock is owned by insiders.

About Crane

Crane Co, headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut, is a diversified manufacturer of engineered industrial products serving customers around the world. The company operates through two primary segments: Aerospace & Electronics and Engineered Materials. Its Aerospace & Electronics division designs and produces valves, fittings, manifolds, and filtration systems for aircraft fuel, hydraulics, and environmental control systems. The Engineered Materials segment focuses on advanced polymers, heat exchangers, and specialized composite solutions for industries including chemical processing, semiconductor manufacturing, and power generation.

With roots dating back to its founding in 1855 in Chicago by R.T.