JPMorgan Chase & Co. Acquires 510 Shares of Crane (NYSE:CR)

JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its stake in Crane (NYSE:CR) by 0.4% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 128,577 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after purchasing an additional 510 shares during the quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s holdings in Crane were worth $20,351,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of CR. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC grew its holdings in shares of Crane by 3.1% during the 2nd quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 8,710 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $1,263,000 after purchasing an additional 263 shares during the last quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC grew its stake in shares of Crane by 12.4% during the second quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 4,519 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $655,000 after buying an additional 498 shares during the last quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Crane by 1,099.1% in the second quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 31,777 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $4,601,000 after buying an additional 29,127 shares during the period. Choreo LLC bought a new stake in shares of Crane in the 2nd quarter valued at about $217,000. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. boosted its holdings in Crane by 673.2% during the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 82,172 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $11,913,000 after acquiring an additional 71,544 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently commented on CR shares. Stifel Nicolaus downgraded shares of Crane from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $176.00 target price on the stock. in a research note on Monday, November 18th. UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of Crane from $152.00 to $157.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their target price on shares of Crane from $175.00 to $182.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 3rd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $168.00.

Crane Trading Up 0.8 %

NYSE:CR opened at $153.60 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.79 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.34, a PEG ratio of 1.93 and a beta of 1.22. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a current ratio of 1.18 and a quick ratio of 0.88. Crane has a one year low of $110.49 and a one year high of $188.52. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $167.32 and its 200 day simple moving average is $157.19.

Crane (NYSE:CR) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, October 28th. The conglomerate reported $1.38 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.32 by $0.06. Crane had a return on equity of 24.45% and a net margin of 13.10%. The company had revenue of $597.20 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $594.45 million. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.03 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that Crane will post 7.87 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Crane Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, December 11th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 29th were paid a dividend of $0.205 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 29th. This represents a $0.82 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.53%. Crane’s dividend payout ratio is currently 18.06%.

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.