NorthRock Partners LLC Purchases 240 Shares of Crane $CR

NorthRock Partners LLC grew its holdings in shares of Crane (NYSE:CR) by 12.3% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 2,195 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after buying an additional 240 shares during the quarter. NorthRock Partners LLC’s holdings in Crane were worth $417,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Crane by 5.0% in the 2nd quarter. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC now owns 1,788 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $339,000 after acquiring an additional 85 shares during the period. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Crane by 11.0% during the 2nd quarter. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. now owns 2,531 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $481,000 after purchasing an additional 250 shares during the last quarter. CWM LLC boosted its position in Crane by 183.7% during the second quarter. CWM LLC now owns 2,610 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $496,000 after purchasing an additional 1,690 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC grew its stake in Crane by 14.5% in the second quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 6,794 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $1,290,000 after purchasing an additional 862 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Louisiana State Employees Retirement System raised its holdings in Crane by 0.7% in the second quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System now owns 13,700 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $2,601,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on CR shares. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price target on shares of Crane from $189.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 30th. DA Davidson raised their target price on shares of Crane from $200.00 to $230.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 30th. UBS Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $230.00 price target (up from $215.00) on shares of Crane in a research report on Wednesday, July 30th. Bank of America increased their price objective on Crane from $220.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, August 21st. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Crane in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Crane has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $222.20.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Crane news, VP Alejandro Alcala sold 20,791 shares of Crane stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $192.74, for a total transaction of $4,007,257.34. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president directly owned 33,526 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,461,801.24. The trade was a 38.28% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Insiders own 2.12% of the company’s stock.

Crane Price Performance

Shares of CR opened at $180.50 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a current ratio of 1.18 and a quick ratio of 0.88. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $185.43 and its 200-day moving average price is $176.80. Crane has a 1-year low of $127.04 and a 1-year high of $203.89. The firm has a market capitalization of $10.39 billion, a PE ratio of 23.91, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.93 and a beta of 1.22.

Crane (NYSE:CR) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, July 28th. The conglomerate reported $1.49 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.34 by $0.15. The company had revenue of $577.20 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $567.70 million. Crane had a return on equity of 24.45% and a net margin of 13.10%.The firm’s revenue was up 9.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.20 EPS. Crane has set its FY 2025 guidance at 5.500-5.800 EPS. On average, equities research analysts predict that Crane will post 7.87 EPS for the current year.

Crane Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 10th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 29th were given a dividend of $0.23 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 29th. This represents a $0.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.5%. Crane’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 15.31%.

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.