Cascade Financial Partners LLC Raises Stock Holdings in Crane (NYSE:CR)

Cascade Financial Partners LLC boosted its holdings in Crane (NYSE:CR) by 9.8% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 3,370 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after buying an additional 300 shares during the quarter. Cascade Financial Partners LLC’s holdings in Crane were worth $511,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its stake in shares of Crane by 16.1% during the 3rd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 655,470 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $103,748,000 after purchasing an additional 91,029 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Crane by 0.5% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 585,718 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $92,707,000 after acquiring an additional 3,188 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Crane by 1.2% during the 4th quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 446,500 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $67,758,000 after acquiring an additional 5,250 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its stake in shares of Crane by 7.7% during the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 413,723 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $62,782,000 after acquiring an additional 29,538 shares during the period. Finally, Wealthfront Advisers LLC bought a new position in shares of Crane during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $45,127,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

Crane Stock Up 1.0 %

Shares of CR opened at $155.05 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.54, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.93 and a beta of 1.30. Crane has a 1 year low of $128.25 and a 1 year high of $188.52. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $161.92 and its 200-day simple moving average is $161.77. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a current ratio of 1.18 and a quick ratio of 0.88.

Crane (NYSE:CR) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, January 27th. The conglomerate reported $1.26 earnings per share 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 quarter last year, the firm posted $0.90 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that Crane will post 7.87 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Crane Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 12th. Investors of record on Friday, February 28th will be issued a dividend of $0.23 per share. This represents a $0.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.59%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 28th. This is a positive change from Crane’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. Crane’s dividend payout ratio is presently 18.18%.

Insider Activity at Crane

In other Crane news, VP Alejandro Alcala sold 2,293 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $170.96, for a total value of $392,011.28. Following the transaction, the vice president now owns 32,963 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,635,354.48. This represents a 6.50 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 2.40% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.