Baird Financial Group Inc. Grows Stake in Crane (NYSE:CR)

Baird Financial Group Inc. increased its stake in Crane (NYSE:CR) by 2.9% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 14,202 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after acquiring an additional 404 shares during the period. Baird Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in Crane were worth $2,155,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Bank of America Corp DE grew its position in Crane by 2.2% in the fourth quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 293,542 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $44,545,000 after acquiring an additional 6,425 shares in the last quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets bought a new stake in Crane in the fourth quarter worth about $5,532,000. Algert Global LLC lifted its stake in Crane by 45.5% in the fourth quarter. Algert Global LLC now owns 14,087 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $2,138,000 after purchasing an additional 4,408 shares during the last quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV lifted its stake in Crane by 4.6% in the fourth quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 2,037 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $309,000 after purchasing an additional 90 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp lifted its stake in Crane by 20.9% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 460,392 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $69,864,000 after purchasing an additional 79,481 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

Crane Stock Performance

Crane stock opened at $169.59 on Monday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $151.35 and a 200-day moving average price of $160.62. 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 has a fifty-two week low of $127.04 and a fifty-two week high of $188.52. The company has a market capitalization of $9.75 billion, a PE ratio of 22.46, a P/E/G ratio of 1.93 and a beta of 1.28.

Crane (NYSE:CR) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, April 28th. The conglomerate reported $1.39 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.29 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $557.60 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $546.93 million. Crane had a net margin of 13.10% and a return on equity of 24.45%. Crane’s revenue was up 9.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.22 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Crane will post 7.87 earnings per share for the current year.

Crane Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, June 11th. Investors of record on Friday, May 30th will be issued a dividend of $0.23 per share. This represents a $0.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.54%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 30th. Crane’s payout ratio is 15.94%.

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.