Crane (NYSE:CR) Increases Dividend to $0.23 Per Share

Crane (NYSE:CR) declared a quarterly dividend on Monday, January 27th, RTT News reports. Investors of record on Friday, February 28th will be paid a dividend of 0.23 per share by the conglomerate on Wednesday, March 12th. This represents a $0.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.57%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 28th. This is an increase from Crane’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21.

Crane has a payout ratio of 14.7% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Crane to earn $8.57 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.92 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 10.7%.

Crane Stock Performance

Shares of CR opened at $161.22 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.18, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $161.38 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $161.32. Crane has a 12 month low of $121.07 and a 12 month high of $188.52. The stock has a market capitalization of $9.23 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.35, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.93 and a beta of 1.24.

Crane (NYSE:CR) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, January 27th. The conglomerate reported $1.26 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.19 by $0.07. Crane had a return on equity of 24.45% and a net margin of 13.10%. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.90 EPS. As a group, analysts predict that Crane will post 7.87 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, VP Alejandro Alcala sold 2,293 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $170.96, for a total value of $392,011.28. Following the transaction, the vice president now owns 32,963 shares in the company, valued at $5,635,354.48. The trade was a 6.50 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 1.86% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently commented on CR. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price objective on Crane from $176.00 to $170.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Friday, January 24th. UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of Crane from $152.00 to $157.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. StockNews.com lowered shares of Crane from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday. Finally, DA Davidson boosted their target price on shares of Crane from $185.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $174.80.

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.