Crane (NYSE:CR) Price Target Increased to $150.00 by Analysts at Stifel Nicolaus

Crane (NYSE:CR) had its price objective upped by Stifel Nicolaus from $135.00 to $150.00 in a research report sent to investors on Wednesday morning, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a buy rating on the conglomerate’s stock.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently commented on CR. 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 research note on Tuesday, March 5th. StockNews.com cut shares of Crane from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note on Friday, April 5th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Crane has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $125.00.

Crane Price Performance

CR opened at $130.09 on Wednesday. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $129.46 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $114.20. Crane has a 52-week low of $67.28 and a 52-week high of $139.34. 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 stock has a market capitalization of $7.43 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.25, a P/E/G ratio of 1.93 and a beta of 1.49.

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

Crane Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 13th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 29th were issued a dividend of $0.205 per share. This is a positive change from Crane’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.18. This represents a $0.82 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.63%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, February 28th. Crane’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 22.22%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Crane

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Crane by 0.3% during the 4th 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. grew its holdings in shares of Crane by 1.2% in the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 4,071,875 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $462,158,000 after purchasing an additional 46,506 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its holdings in shares of Crane by 93.0% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,666,141 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $193,106,000 after purchasing an additional 1,285,048 shares in the last quarter. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL grew its holdings in shares of Crane by 76.8% in the second quarter. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL now owns 2,408,030 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $179,899,000 after purchasing an additional 1,046,295 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital World Investors grew its holdings in shares of Crane by 4.0% in the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 2,095,540 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $247,567,000 after purchasing an additional 79,710 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.