KBC Group NV Buys 1,487 Shares of Crown Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:CCK)

KBC Group NV lifted its holdings in shares of Crown Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:CCK) by 12.5% during the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 13,339 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,487 shares during the period. KBC Group NV’s holdings in Crown were worth $1,191,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Crown in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $113,568,000. Thompson Siegel & Walmsley LLC bought a new position in Crown during the fourth quarter worth $66,732,000. Vulcan Value Partners LLC raised its stake in Crown by 450.5% during the fourth quarter. Vulcan Value Partners LLC now owns 823,691 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $68,027,000 after buying an additional 674,072 shares during the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC increased its stake in Crown by 146.3% in the fourth quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 1,008,500 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $83,393,000 after purchasing an additional 599,000 shares in the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Crown by 30.6% in the fourth quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,705,081 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $140,720,000 after purchasing an additional 399,842 shares in the last quarter. 90.93% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Crown

In related news, VP Christy L. Kalaus sold 2,130 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $99.41, for a total transaction of $211,743.30. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president directly owned 4,500 shares in the company, valued at $447,345. The trade was a 32.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, COO Gerard H. Gifford sold 7,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $97.00, for a total transaction of $679,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer owned 135,014 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $13,096,358. This represents a 4.93% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.90% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on shares of Crown from $89.00 to $101.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. Mizuho boosted their target price on shares of Crown from $105.00 to $110.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 29th. Royal Bank Of Canada boosted their price target on shares of Crown from $115.00 to $120.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Barclays upped their target price on shares of Crown from $109.00 to $117.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. Finally, Citigroup increased their price target on shares of Crown from $119.00 to $129.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $113.27.

Crown Stock Up 0.9%

Shares of NYSE CCK opened at $107.90 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.50, a current ratio of 0.87 and a quick ratio of 0.56. The company has a market cap of $12.56 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.20, a PEG ratio of 1.84 and a beta of 0.76. Crown Holdings, Inc. has a 1 year low of $70.84 and a 1 year high of $108.05. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $99.53 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $90.75.

Crown (NYSE:CCK) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, April 28th. The industrial products company reported $1.67 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.22 by $0.45. The company had revenue of $2.89 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.82 billion. Crown had a net margin of 4.62% and a return on equity of 26.98%. Crown’s revenue was up 3.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.02 earnings per share. Research analysts anticipate that Crown Holdings, Inc. will post 6.96 earnings per share for the current year.

Crown Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 29th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 15th were paid a dividend of $0.26 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, May 15th. This represents a $1.04 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.96%. Crown’s payout ratio is currently 22.37%.

About Crown

Crown Holdings, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the packaging business in the United States and internationally. It operates through Americas Beverage, European Beverage, Asia Pacific, and Transit Packaging segments. The company manufactures and sells recyclable aluminum beverage cans and ends, glass bottles, steel crowns, aluminum caps, non-beverage cans, and aerosol cans and closures.