Short Interest in Crown Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:CCK) Rises By 6.3%

Crown Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:CCK) saw a significant increase in short interest in September. As of September 30th, there was short interest totalling 2,520,000 shares, an increase of 6.3% from the September 15th total of 2,370,000 shares. Currently, 2.1% of the shares of the company are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 1,100,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 2.3 days.

Insider Transactions at Crown

In related news, CEO Timothy J. Donahue sold 7,500 shares of Crown stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $93.00, for a total transaction of $697,500.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 571,178 shares in the company, valued at $53,119,554. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, CEO Timothy J. Donahue sold 7,500 shares of Crown stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $93.00, for a total value of $697,500.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 571,178 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $53,119,554. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director James H. Miller sold 1,006 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $95.60, for a total transaction of $96,173.60. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 12,424 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,187,734.40. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 38,506 shares of company stock valued at $3,392,349. 0.90% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Crown

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in CCK. Claro Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Crown in the third quarter valued at $682,000. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd grew its holdings in shares of Crown by 1.6% in the 3rd quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd now owns 21,444 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $2,056,000 after purchasing an additional 347 shares during the last quarter. nVerses Capital LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Crown during the 3rd quarter worth about $623,000. Sumitomo Life Insurance Co. lifted its holdings in Crown by 3.0% during the 3rd quarter. Sumitomo Life Insurance Co. now owns 11,736 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $1,125,000 after purchasing an additional 347 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Creative Planning boosted its position in Crown by 3.6% in the third quarter. Creative Planning now owns 45,835 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $4,395,000 after buying an additional 1,586 shares in the last quarter. 90.93% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $105.00 target price on shares of Crown in a research note on Tuesday, September 24th. Truist Financial boosted their target price on Crown from $95.00 to $103.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Bank of America raised their price target on Crown from $98.00 to $102.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Barclays boosted their price target on Crown from $95.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, UBS Group cut their price objective on shares of Crown from $112.00 to $91.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, July 17th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Crown has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $103.07.

Crown Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE CCK traded down $0.24 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $93.80. The company had a trading volume of 1,402,067 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,127,190. Crown has a 12 month low of $69.61 and a 12 month high of $96.74. The firm has a market cap of $11.33 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.10, a PEG ratio of 2.19 and a beta of 0.86. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $91.26 and its 200-day simple moving average is $84.17. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.00, a current ratio of 1.05 and a quick ratio of 0.73.

Crown (NYSE:CCK) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, July 22nd. The industrial products company reported $1.81 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.59 by $0.22. The company had revenue of $3.04 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.06 billion. Crown had a return on equity of 23.96% and a net margin of 3.68%. Crown’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.68 EPS. As a group, analysts predict that Crown will post 6.15 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Crown Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 29th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 15th were issued a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.07%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, August 15th. Crown’s payout ratio is 28.82%.

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.