Analysts Set Crane (NYSE:CR) Target Price at $113.67

Crane (NYSE:CR) has received an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from the eight ratings firms that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat reports. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and five have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year target price among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $113.67.

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on the company. Bank of America increased their price target on Crane from $110.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 5th. StockNews.com cut Crane from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 19th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on Crane from $124.00 to $125.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 23rd.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Crane

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in CR. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Crane by 0.3% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,894,887 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $578,282,000 after acquiring an additional 16,167 shares during the period. SageView Advisory Group LLC bought a new position in Crane during the 4th quarter worth $443,000. Congress Asset Management Co. MA increased its stake in Crane by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. Congress Asset Management Co. MA now owns 1,322,850 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $156,282,000 after acquiring an additional 6,605 shares during the period. EP Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in Crane during the 4th quarter worth $237,000. Finally, Covenant Partners LLC increased its stake in Crane by 20.4% during the 4th quarter. Covenant Partners LLC now owns 3,456 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $408,000 after acquiring an additional 585 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 85.91% of the company’s stock.

Crane Trading Up 0.7 %

NYSE CR opened at $134.28 on Tuesday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $124.02 and a 200 day simple moving average of $108.59. The company has a market capitalization of $7.67 billion, a PE ratio of 36.39, a P/E/G ratio of 1.93 and a beta of 1.49. 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 has a 12 month low of $67.28 and a 12 month high of $135.67.

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

Crane Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 13th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 29th were paid a dividend of $0.205 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, February 28th. This represents a $0.82 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.61%. This is a positive change from Crane’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.18. Crane’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 22.22%.

About Crane

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.