Crown (NYSE:CCK) Downgraded to “Hold” Rating by StockNews.com

StockNews.com downgraded shares of Crown (NYSE:CCK) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report sent to investors on Friday morning.

Other equities analysts also recently issued reports about the company. Citigroup increased their target price on Crown from $110.00 to $111.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on Crown from $105.00 to $109.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, October 21st. Robert W. Baird upped their price target on shares of Crown from $100.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, October 21st. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on shares of Crown from $105.00 to $113.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, Loop Capital increased their target price on shares of Crown from $120.00 to $129.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, October 21st. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $105.92.

Crown Price Performance

Shares of NYSE CCK opened at $78.84 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $87.96 and a 200 day moving average price of $87.68. Crown has a 1-year low of $69.61 and a 1-year high of $98.46. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.19, a current ratio of 1.21 and a quick ratio of 0.84. The company has a market cap of $9.43 billion, a PE ratio of 97.33, a P/E/G ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 0.86.

Crown (NYSE:CCK) last released its earnings results on Thursday, October 17th. The industrial products company reported $1.99 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 company had revenue of $3.07 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.07 billion. Sell-side analysts forecast that Crown will post 6.34 EPS for the current year.

Crown Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 27th. Investors of record on Thursday, November 14th were paid a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.27%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, November 14th. Crown’s payout ratio is currently 123.46%.

Insider Activity at Crown

In related news, 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 completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 114,402 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,970,007.78. This represents a 8.04 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Timothy J. Donahue sold 7,500 shares of Crown stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $96.73, for a total value of $725,475.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 563,678 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $54,524,572.94. This trade represents a 1.31 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.90% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Crown

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. FMR LLC lifted its position in Crown by 9.3% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 8,787,606 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $842,556,000 after buying an additional 749,085 shares in the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. boosted its position in Crown by 7.8% during the 3rd quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 5,676,902 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $544,301,000 after purchasing an additional 412,973 shares during the period. State Street Corp increased its holdings in Crown by 1.8% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,000,402 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $383,559,000 after purchasing an additional 69,260 shares in the last quarter. Sessa Capital IM L.P. raised its position in Crown by 153.0% in the second quarter. Sessa Capital IM L.P. now owns 3,289,374 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $244,697,000 after purchasing an additional 1,989,374 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Crown by 4.2% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,061,869 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $197,242,000 after buying an additional 82,764 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.93% of the company’s stock.

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.