Crown Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:CCK) Short Interest Update

Crown Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:CCK) was the target of a large increase in short interest in November. As of November 30th, there was short interest totalling 3,680,000 shares, an increase of 34.3% from the November 15th total of 2,740,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 1,090,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 3.4 days. Approximately 3.1% of the company’s stock are sold short.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Crown news, COO Gerard H. Gifford sold 10,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $95.89, for a total transaction of $958,900.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 114,402 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,970,007.78. The trade was a 8.04 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Timothy J. Donahue sold 7,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $96.73, for a total value of $725,475.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 563,678 shares in the company, valued at approximately $54,524,572.94. This trade represents a 1.31 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 26,006 shares of company stock valued at $2,478,049. Corporate insiders own 0.90% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Crown

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its position in Crown by 110.9% in the third quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 310 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $30,000 after buying an additional 163 shares during the last quarter. Covestor Ltd raised its stake in shares of Crown by 156.5% in the third quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 454 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $44,000 after acquiring an additional 277 shares during the period. Brooklyn Investment Group purchased a new stake in Crown in the 3rd quarter worth about $44,000. Blue Trust Inc. lifted its stake in Crown by 172.6% in the second quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 608 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $48,000 after purchasing an additional 385 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Crown during the third quarter valued at approximately $48,000. 90.93% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on CCK shares. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of Crown from $97.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, October 21st. Truist Financial increased their target price on shares of Crown from $95.00 to $103.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 15th. Mizuho set a $110.00 target price on shares of Crown in a research note on Friday, October 18th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Crown from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, October 26th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of Crown from $105.00 to $109.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, October 21st. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $106.62.

Crown Price Performance

Shares of CCK stock traded down $0.20 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $87.88. The stock had a trading volume of 1,088,326 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,137,063. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.19, a current ratio of 1.21 and a quick ratio of 0.84. The stock has a market capitalization of $10.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 108.49, a PEG ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 0.83. Crown has a one year low of $69.61 and a one year high of $98.46. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $92.45 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $87.47.

Crown (NYSE:CCK) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 17th. The industrial products company reported $1.99 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.81 by $0.18. The business had revenue of $3.07 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.07 billion. Crown had a return on equity of 24.57% and a net margin of 0.83%. Equities analysts forecast that Crown will post 6.34 EPS for the current year.

Crown Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 27th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 14th were paid a $0.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, November 14th. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.14%. Crown’s payout ratio is currently 123.46%.

Crown Company Profile

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.