Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. Trims Stock Holdings in Crane (NYSE:CR)

Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. lowered its position in shares of Crane (NYSE:CR) by 0.6% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 16,857 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after selling 99 shares during the quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc.’s holdings in Crane were worth $2,558,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of CR. Huntington National Bank increased its holdings in shares of Crane by 487.8% during the fourth quarter. Huntington National Bank now owns 241 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $37,000 after acquiring an additional 200 shares in the last quarter. UMB Bank n.a. increased its stake in Crane by 69.1% during the 4th quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 372 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $56,000 after purchasing an additional 152 shares in the last quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp raised its holdings in Crane by 17.8% in the fourth quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 583 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $89,000 after buying an additional 88 shares during the last quarter. AlphaQuest LLC bought a new position in shares of Crane in the fourth quarter worth approximately $101,000. Finally, Quarry LP grew its holdings in shares of Crane by 250.6% during the fourth quarter. Quarry LP now owns 817 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $124,000 after buying an additional 584 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on CR shares. UBS Group upgraded shares of Crane from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $157.00 to $190.00 in a report on Tuesday, April 29th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on Crane from $144.00 to $150.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. DA Davidson reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $200.00 price objective on shares of Crane in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft set a $186.00 target price on Crane and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, April 14th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of Crane from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 4th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $178.20.

Crane Stock Performance

Shares of CR opened at $175.90 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $10.11 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.30, a PEG ratio of 1.93 and a beta of 1.28. 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 $127.04 and a one year high of $188.52. The business has a fifty day moving average of $153.10 and a 200 day moving average of $161.17.

Crane (NYSE:CR) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, April 28th. The conglomerate reported $1.39 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.29 by $0.10. Crane had a return on equity of 24.45% and a net margin of 13.10%. The business had revenue of $557.60 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $546.93 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.22 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 9.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Crane will post 7.87 EPS for the current year.

Crane Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, June 11th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 30th will be paid a $0.23 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 30th. This represents a $0.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.52%. Crane’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 15.94%.

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.