BNP Paribas Financial Markets Invests $5.53 Million in Crane (NYSE:CR)

BNP Paribas Financial Markets purchased a new position in shares of Crane (NYSE:CR) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm purchased 36,453 shares of the conglomerate’s stock, valued at approximately $5,532,000. BNP Paribas Financial Markets owned about 0.06% of Crane as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in CR. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Crane in the fourth quarter valued at $144,961,000. Alliancebernstein L.P. raised its stake in shares of Crane by 619.4% during the fourth quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 499,656 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $75,823,000 after acquiring an additional 430,201 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors lifted its stake in Crane by 16.9% in the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 2,455,854 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $372,676,000 after purchasing an additional 355,765 shares during the last quarter. Wealthfront Advisers LLC bought a new stake in shares of Crane in the 4th quarter valued at about $45,127,000. Finally, Invesco Ltd. increased its stake in shares of Crane by 10.7% in the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,425,015 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $216,246,000 after buying an additional 138,279 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

Crane Stock Performance

NYSE CR opened at $175.95 on Wednesday. Crane has a fifty-two week low of $127.04 and a fifty-two week high of $188.52. The firm has a market capitalization of $10.12 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.30, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.93 and a beta of 1.28. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $152.25 and its two-hundred day moving average is $160.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a current ratio of 1.18.

Crane (NYSE:CR) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, April 28th. The conglomerate reported $1.39 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.29 by $0.10. Crane had a net margin of 13.10% and a return on equity of 24.45%. The business had revenue of $557.60 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $546.93 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.22 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 9.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts anticipate that Crane will post 7.87 earnings per share for the current year.

Crane Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, June 11th. Investors of record on Friday, May 30th will be issued a $0.23 dividend. This represents a $0.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.52%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 30th. Crane’s payout ratio is currently 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.