Stock Traders Purchase High Volume of Put Options on Crown (NYSE:CCK)

Crown Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:CCK) was the recipient of unusually large options trading activity on Friday. Investors purchased 11,835 put options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 665% compared to the average volume of 1,548 put options.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Crown news, CEO Timothy J. Donahue sold 7,500 shares of Crown stock in a transaction on Friday, September 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $90.58, for a total value of $679,350.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 578,678 shares in the company, valued at $52,416,653.24. This trade represents a 1.28 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, COO Gerard H. Gifford sold 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $95.89, for a total value of $958,900.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 114,402 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,970,007.78. The trade was a 8.04 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 33,506 shares of company stock worth $3,157,399. 0.90% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Crown

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of CCK. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its holdings in Crown by 110.9% in the 3rd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 310 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $30,000 after buying an additional 163 shares in the last quarter. EntryPoint Capital LLC bought a new stake in shares of Crown during the first quarter valued at about $41,000. Covestor Ltd lifted its holdings in Crown by 156.5% in the third quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 454 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $44,000 after purchasing an additional 277 shares during the period. Brooklyn Investment Group acquired a new position in Crown during the 3rd quarter valued at about $44,000. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. raised its position in shares of Crown by 172.6% during the 2nd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 608 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $48,000 after buying an additional 385 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.93% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts recently commented on CCK shares. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of Crown from $105.00 to $109.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, October 21st. Loop Capital raised their target price on shares of Crown from $120.00 to $129.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, October 21st. Mizuho set a $110.00 price objective on Crown in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Robert W. Baird upped their target price on Crown from $100.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, October 21st. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded Crown from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, October 26th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Crown presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $106.62.

Crown Stock Up 0.4 %

Shares of Crown stock traded up $0.32 during trading on Friday, reaching $90.38. The company had a trading volume of 422,318 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,117,751. The company has a market cap of $10.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 111.14, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.05 and a beta of 0.85. Crown has a fifty-two week low of $69.61 and a fifty-two week high of $98.46. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $93.61 and its 200-day moving average is $86.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.19, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a current ratio of 1.21.

Crown (NYSE:CCK) last released its earnings results on Thursday, October 17th. The industrial products company reported $1.99 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.81 by $0.18. Crown had a net margin of 0.83% and a return on equity of 24.57%. The firm had revenue of $3.07 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.07 billion. On average, analysts anticipate that Crown will post 6.34 EPS for the current year.

Crown Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, November 27th. Investors of record on Thursday, November 14th will be given a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 14th. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.11%. Crown’s dividend payout ratio is currently 123.46%.

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.