Crane (NYSE:CR) Given Consensus Recommendation of “Buy” by Analysts

Crane (NYSE:CR) has received an average rating of “Buy” from the eight ratings firms that are covering the stock, MarketBeat reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold recommendation, five have assigned a buy recommendation and two have assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month target price among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $226.3333.

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Crane from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, May 9th. DA Davidson restated a “buy” rating and issued a $235.00 price objective on shares of Crane in a report on Monday, June 1st. Stifel Nicolaus upgraded shares of Crane from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $200.00 to $215.00 in a report on Wednesday, April 29th. Finally, Weiss Ratings lowered shares of Crane from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Monday, May 4th.

Insider Buying and Selling at Crane

In other Crane news, Director Susan D. Lynch acquired 150 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 30th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $177.38 per share, for a total transaction of $26,607.00. Following the acquisition, the director owned 370 shares in the company, valued at $65,630.60. The trade was a 68.18% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Insiders own 2.12% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Crane

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. raised its holdings in Crane by 289,020.7% during the 4th quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 7,855,409 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $1,448,773,000 after buying an additional 7,852,692 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Crane during the 4th quarter valued at $198,509,000. Freestone Grove Partners LP bought a new stake in Crane during the 4th quarter valued at $76,171,000. AQR Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Crane by 85.6% during the 4th quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 799,864 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $147,519,000 after buying an additional 368,816 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Federated Hermes Inc. raised its holdings in Crane by 4,412.6% during the 4th quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 240,836 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $44,417,000 after buying an additional 235,499 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Crane Trading Up 0.4%

Shares of Crane stock opened at $207.44 on Wednesday. Crane has a 1 year low of $159.58 and a 1 year high of $214.31. The firm has a market cap of $11.98 billion, a PE ratio of 27.48, a PEG ratio of 1.93 and a beta of 1.12. 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 has a 50 day simple moving average of $184.62 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $188.13.

Crane (NYSE:CR) last announced its earnings results on Monday, April 27th. The conglomerate reported $1.65 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.44 by $0.21. Crane had a net margin of 13.10% and a return on equity of 24.45%. The business had revenue of $696.40 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $672.74 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.39 earnings per share. Crane’s revenue for the quarter was up 24.9% on a year-over-year basis. Crane has set its FY 2026 guidance at 6.650-6.850 EPS. Analysts expect that Crane will post 7.87 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Crane Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 10th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 29th were issued a $0.255 dividend. This represents a $1.02 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.5%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, May 29th. Crane’s payout ratio is presently 18.35%.

About Crane

Crane Co, headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut, is a diversified manufacturer of engineered industrial products serving customers around the world. The company operates through two primary segments: Aerospace & Electronics and Engineered Materials. Its Aerospace & Electronics division designs and produces valves, fittings, manifolds, and filtration systems for aircraft fuel, hydraulics, and environmental control systems. The Engineered Materials segment focuses on advanced polymers, heat exchangers, and specialized composite solutions for industries including chemical processing, semiconductor manufacturing, and power generation.

With roots dating back to its founding in 1855 in Chicago by R.T.