Intrust Bank NA Has $544,000 Stock Holdings in Crane (NYSE:CR)

Intrust Bank NA grew its stake in shares of Crane (NYSE:CR) by 7.9% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 3,588 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after buying an additional 262 shares during the quarter. Intrust Bank NA’s holdings in Crane were worth $544,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA raised its stake in Crane by 9.9% during the 4th quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA now owns 7,020 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $1,065,000 after buying an additional 635 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Crane during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $144,961,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its position in shares of Crane by 1.1% during the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 129,971 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $19,723,000 after purchasing an additional 1,394 shares during the period. EntryPoint Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of Crane in the 4th quarter worth $516,000. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Crane by 0.3% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,695,440 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $712,533,000 after purchasing an additional 14,373 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have weighed in on CR shares. UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of Crane from $152.00 to $157.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. DA Davidson reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $200.00 target price on shares of Crane in a report on Tuesday, March 11th. StockNews.com cut shares of Crane from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 4th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price objective on shares of Crane from $176.00 to $170.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, January 24th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Crane presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $174.80.

Insider Activity at Crane

In related news, VP Alejandro Alcala sold 2,293 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $170.96, for a total value of $392,011.28. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 32,963 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,635,354.48. This trade represents a 6.50 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 2.12% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Crane Stock Performance

Shares of CR stock opened at $152.27 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a current ratio of 1.18. The firm has a market cap of $8.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.17, a P/E/G ratio of 1.93 and a beta of 1.30. Crane has a 52 week low of $128.50 and a 52 week high of $188.52. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $162.32 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $161.99.

Crane (NYSE:CR) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, January 27th. The conglomerate reported $1.26 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.19 by $0.07. Crane had a return on equity of 24.45% and a net margin of 13.10%. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.90 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Crane will post 7.87 earnings per share for the current year.

Crane Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 12th. Investors of record on Friday, February 28th were issued a $0.23 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 28th. This represents a $0.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.60%. This is a positive change from Crane’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. Crane’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 18.18%.

Crane Profile

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.