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

Crown Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:CCK) was the target of a large increase in short interest during the month of February. As of February 15th, there was short interest totalling 5,690,000 shares, an increase of 20.6% from the January 31st total of 4,720,000 shares. Currently, 4.8% of the shares of the stock are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 1,350,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 4.2 days.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Crown

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. FMR LLC raised its holdings in shares of Crown by 9.3% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 8,787,606 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $842,556,000 after acquiring an additional 749,085 shares in the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. increased its position in Crown by 1.8% during the 4th quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 5,779,691 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $477,923,000 after purchasing an additional 102,789 shares during the period. State Street Corp raised its holdings in shares of Crown by 1.8% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,000,402 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $383,559,000 after purchasing an additional 69,260 shares in the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its position in shares of Crown by 10,138.8% in the 4th quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 3,105,118 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $256,762,000 after purchasing an additional 3,074,791 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its stake in shares of Crown by 10.5% during the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 2,967,810 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $245,408,000 after purchasing an additional 283,014 shares in the last quarter. 90.93% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Crown Trading Up 2.1 %

CCK stock traded up $1.91 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $91.32. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 720,804 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,124,863. The firm has a market capitalization of $10.92 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.69, a PEG ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 0.87. Crown has a 1 year low of $70.84 and a 1 year high of $98.46. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.88, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 1.22. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $86.01 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $89.52.

Crown (NYSE:CCK) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 5th. The industrial products company reported $1.59 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.51 by $0.08. Crown had a net margin of 3.59% and a return on equity of 25.12%. On average, equities research analysts predict that Crown will post 6.96 EPS for the current year.

Crown Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 1st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, March 18th will be issued a dividend of $0.26 per share. This is an increase from Crown’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.25. This represents a $1.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.14%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, March 18th. Crown’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 29.21%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently weighed in on CCK. Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on shares of Crown from $113.00 to $115.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Citigroup increased their price target on shares of Crown from $110.00 to $111.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 6th. UBS Group reduced their price objective on Crown from $113.00 to $108.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on Crown from $86.00 to $90.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Mizuho cut their target price on Crown from $110.00 to $100.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Crown presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $106.00.

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.