Madison Investment Advisors LLC Buys New Stake in Crane (NYSE:CR)

Madison Investment Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Crane (NYSE:CR) during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor bought 25,621 shares of the conglomerate’s stock, valued at approximately $3,888,000.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of CR. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA increased its holdings in Crane by 16.1% in the third quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 655,470 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $103,748,000 after buying an additional 91,029 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in Crane by 0.5% in the third 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 in the last quarter. Citigroup Inc. boosted its stake in Crane by 328.3% in the third quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 23,790 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $3,765,000 after acquiring an additional 18,236 shares in the last quarter. Truvestments Capital LLC acquired a new position in Crane in the third quarter valued at $56,000. Finally, Quantbot Technologies LP boosted its stake in Crane by 44.5% in the third quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP now owns 7,717 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $1,221,000 after acquiring an additional 2,376 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Crane news, VP Alejandro Alcala sold 2,293 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. 2.40% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Crane Trading Down 0.5 %

NYSE CR opened at $152.44 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.75 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.19, 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 has a 50-day moving average price of $162.02 and a 200 day moving average price of $161.55. The company has a quick ratio of 0.88, a current ratio of 1.18 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29.

Crane (NYSE:CR) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, January 27th. The conglomerate reported $1.26 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.19 by $0.07. Crane had a net margin of 13.10% and a return on equity of 24.45%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.90 earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect that Crane will post 7.87 EPS for the current year.

Crane Increases Dividend

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have issued reports on CR. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price objective on shares of Crane from $176.00 to $170.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, January 24th. DA Davidson restated a “buy” rating and issued a $200.00 price objective on shares of Crane in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. UBS Group upped 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. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of Crane from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Crane has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $174.80.

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.