Wells Fargo & Company Raises Crown (NYSE:CCK) Price Target to $84.00

Crown (NYSE:CCK) had its price target raised by Wells Fargo & Company from $76.00 to $84.00 in a research note released on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. They currently have an equal weight rating on the industrial products company’s stock.

Several other brokerages have also weighed in on CCK. Wolfe Research assumed coverage on Crown in a report on Friday, March 1st. They issued an outperform rating and a $102.00 price objective for the company. Morgan Stanley assumed coverage on shares of Crown in a report on Monday, March 18th. They issued an equal weight rating and a $87.00 price objective for the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on Crown from $85.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a research report on Wednesday. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price objective on shares of Crown from $110.00 to $97.00 and set an outperform rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 8th. Finally, UBS Group started coverage on Crown in a research note on Tuesday, January 16th. They set a buy rating and a $112.00 price objective for the company. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Crown presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $99.29.

Crown Stock Performance

Shares of CCK stock opened at $82.47 on Wednesday. Crown has a 52 week low of $69.61 and a 52 week high of $96.35. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $78.16 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $82.63. The firm has a market cap of $9.96 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.77, a P/E/G ratio of 2.82 and a beta of 0.88. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.26, a quick ratio of 0.77 and a current ratio of 1.19.

Crown (NYSE:CCK) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, April 29th. The industrial products company reported $1.02 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.96 by $0.06. Crown had a return on equity of 23.95% and a net margin of 3.51%. The business had revenue of $2.78 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.93 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.20 earnings per share. Crown’s revenue for the quarter was down 6.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Crown will post 5.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Crown Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 27th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, June 13th will be paid a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.21%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, June 13th. Crown’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 28.82%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Timothy J. Donahue sold 22,500 shares of Crown stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $85.18, for a total value of $1,916,550.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 616,178 shares in the company, valued at approximately $52,486,042.04. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 0.90% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Crown

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of CCK. BluePath Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in Crown during the 3rd quarter valued at about $25,000. Sound Income Strategies LLC bought a new position in Crown in the fourth quarter worth about $26,000. Rise Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Crown in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Mather Group LLC. purchased a new stake in Crown in the first quarter worth $32,000. Finally, Quest Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of Crown in the 4th quarter worth about $34,000. 90.93% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.