Strs Ohio Decreases Stock Position in Crane (NYSE:CR)

Strs Ohio decreased its position in shares of Crane (NYSE:CR) by 8.6% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 80,897 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after selling 7,619 shares during the period. Strs Ohio owned approximately 0.14% of Crane worth $9,557,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. lifted its position in Crane by 8.0% during the first quarter. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. now owns 14,853 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $1,608,000 after purchasing an additional 1,104 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Crane by 3.0% in the 1st quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 10,432 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $1,129,000 after acquiring an additional 299 shares during the last quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC grew its position in Crane by 82.1% in the first quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 4,102 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $445,000 after acquiring an additional 1,849 shares in the last quarter. Citigroup Inc. grew its position in Crane by 4.7% in the first quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 7,856 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $851,000 after acquiring an additional 355 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of Montreal Can increased its stake in Crane by 1.1% during the first quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 12,777 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $1,408,000 after acquiring an additional 136 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently commented on CR. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their target price on Crane from $135.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday. StockNews.com cut shares of Crane from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, April 5th. Finally, Bank of America lifted their price target 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. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $125.00.

Crane Trading Down 1.3 %

NYSE CR opened at $130.09 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $7.43 billion, a PE ratio of 35.25, a PEG ratio of 1.93 and a beta of 1.49. Crane has a 12 month low of $67.28 and a 12 month high of $139.34. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $129.46 and its 200-day moving average price is $114.20. The company has a current ratio of 1.18, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29.

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

Crane Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 13th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 29th were issued a $0.205 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, February 28th. This represents a $0.82 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.63%. This is a positive change from Crane’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.18. Crane’s payout ratio 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.