State of Michigan Retirement System Has $1.72 Million Position in Crane (NYSE:CR)

State of Michigan Retirement System lessened its stake in shares of Crane (NYSE:CR) by 0.8% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 11,872 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after selling 100 shares during the quarter. State of Michigan Retirement System’s holdings in Crane were worth $1,721,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Capital International Investors lifted its holdings in shares of Crane by 103.3% during the first quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 1,348,451 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $182,216,000 after buying an additional 685,230 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Crane during the fourth quarter worth approximately $59,659,000. Axiom Investors LLC DE boosted its stake in shares of Crane by 313.3% in the fourth quarter. Axiom Investors LLC DE now owns 145,432 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $17,181,000 after buying an additional 110,247 shares during the period. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC grew its position in Crane by 13.0% during the first quarter. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC now owns 727,846 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $98,354,000 after buying an additional 83,938 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norden Group LLC increased its stake in Crane by 1,363.7% during the 1st quarter. Norden Group LLC now owns 89,432 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $12,086,000 after acquiring an additional 83,322 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Bank of America upped their target price on Crane from $140.00 to $165.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 29th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their target price on shares of Crane from $170.00 to $175.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, August 1st. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Crane from $120.00 to $152.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 15th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on shares of Crane from $157.00 to $168.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 18th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $155.00.

Crane Stock Up 1.0 %

NYSE:CR opened at $154.92 on Thursday. Crane has a one year low of $82.57 and a one year high of $162.34. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a current ratio of 1.18 and a quick ratio of 0.88. The company has a market cap of $8.85 billion, a PE ratio of 41.53, a P/E/G ratio of 1.93 and a beta of 0.78. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $148.79 and its 200 day simple moving average is $140.62.

Crane (NYSE:CR) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, July 29th. The conglomerate reported $1.30 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.24 by $0.06. 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 the consensus estimate of $568.33 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.10 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts anticipate that Crane will post 7.87 earnings per share for the current year.

Crane Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 11th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 30th will be given a $0.205 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, August 30th. This represents a $0.82 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.53%. Crane’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 21.98%.

About Crane

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.