Crown Target of Unusually Large Options Trading (NYSE:CCK)

Crown Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:CCK) saw some unusual options trading on Tuesday. Stock investors acquired 9,980 put options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 426% compared to the typical volume of 1,897 put options.

Insider Buying and Selling at Crown

In other news, CEO Timothy J. Donahue sold 7,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $85.00, for a total transaction of $637,500.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 608,678 shares in the company, valued at $51,737,630. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other news, CEO Timothy J. Donahue sold 7,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $85.00, for a total value of $637,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 608,678 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $51,737,630. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, Director James H. Miller sold 9,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $82.93, for a total value of $746,370.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 12,884 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,068,470.12. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 39,000 shares of company stock worth $3,300,420. 0.90% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Crown

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CCK. Hudson Bay Capital Management LP grew its stake in shares of Crown by 55.6% during the 3rd quarter. Hudson Bay Capital Management LP now owns 70,000 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $6,194,000 after buying an additional 25,000 shares during the period. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank boosted its holdings in Crown by 245.5% in the 4th quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 62,808 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $5,784,000 after acquiring an additional 44,630 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in Crown by 3.5% during the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,320,502 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $121,614,000 after buying an additional 44,195 shares during the period. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System acquired a new position in shares of Crown in the fourth quarter worth about $3,122,000. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP grew its position in shares of Crown by 4.1% during the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 504,720 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $44,658,000 after buying an additional 19,666 shares in the last quarter. 90.93% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the company. Truist Financial restated a “hold” rating and set a $88.00 price target (down previously from $100.00) on shares of Crown in a research note on Wednesday, March 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of Crown from $85.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 1st. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on shares of Crown from $76.00 to $84.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 1st. Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on shares of Crown from $90.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 1st. Finally, Loop Capital boosted their target price on Crown from $101.00 to $106.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 1st. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $99.29.

Crown Price Performance

Shares of CCK stock traded up $0.34 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $78.33. The stock had a trading volume of 141,322 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,114,999. The company has a market cap of $9.46 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 0.88. The company has a current ratio of 1.19, a quick ratio of 0.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.26. Crown has a 12-month low of $69.61 and a 12-month high of $96.35. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $81.62 and a 200 day simple moving average of $82.92.

Crown (NYSE:CCK) last announced its earnings results on Monday, April 29th. The industrial products company reported $1.02 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.96 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $2.78 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.93 billion. Crown had a return on equity of 23.95% and a net margin of 3.51%. Crown’s quarterly revenue was down 6.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.20 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Crown will post 5.95 earnings per share for the current year.

Crown Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 27th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, June 13th will be issued a $0.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, June 13th. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.28%. Crown’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 28.82%.

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.