Crane (NYSE:CR) Receives Average Recommendation of “Buy” from Brokerages

Shares of Crane (NYSE:CR) have been assigned a consensus rating of “Buy” from the seven analysts that are covering the company, MarketBeat reports. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a buy recommendation and three have given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month price objective among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $239.00.

Several equities analysts have weighed in on the company. Weiss Ratings cut Crane from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 24th. DA Davidson reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $245.00 target price on shares of Crane in a research note on Tuesday, September 15th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft set a $240.00 target price on shares of Crane in a report on Tuesday, September 1st. BMO Capital Markets initiated coverage on shares of Crane in a research report on Monday, July 20th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $253.00 price target on the stock. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price target on shares of Crane from $215.00 to $242.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, July 20th.

Crane Stock Performance

Shares of CR opened at $206.56 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a current ratio of 2.80. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $209.38 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $198.16. The firm has a market capitalization of $11.94 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.11, a P/E/G ratio of 2.43 and a beta of 1.02. Crane has a 52 week low of $159.58 and a 52 week high of $230.50.

Crane (NYSE:CR) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, July 28th. The conglomerate reported $1.79 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.68 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $724.70 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $708.46 million. Crane had a return on equity of 18.67% and a net margin of 12.97%.The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 25.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.49 earnings per share. Crane has set its FY 2026 guidance at 6.850-7.050 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Crane will post 6.99 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Crane Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 9th. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 31st were paid a $0.2550 dividend. This represents a $1.02 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.5%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 31st. Crane’s payout ratio is presently 17.83%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Crane

In other news, Director James Tullis sold 614 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $225.00, for a total value of $138,150.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 5,421 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,219,725. This represents a 10.17% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 2.12% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of CR. Capital World Investors raised its stake in shares of Crane by 1.7% during the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 2,993,123 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $552,022,000 after purchasing an additional 48,679 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new position in Crane during the fourth quarter valued at about $198,509,000. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in Crane by 4.0% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 917,679 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $169,282,000 after buying an additional 35,441 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings in Crane by 0.4% during the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 845,961 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $144,622,000 after buying an additional 3,678 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Janus Henderson Group PLC raised its position in Crane by 24.5% in the first quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 361,270 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $61,777,000 after acquiring an additional 71,086 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

About Crane

Crane Company (NYSE: CR) is a diversified industrial technology company that develops and manufactures highly engineered products and solutions for aerospace, industrial, process flow and other specialized markets. The company serves customers that require products designed for demanding operating environments, including applications involving the movement and control of fluids.

Crane’s businesses include aerospace and electronics products, process flow equipment and engineered materials.