Gerard H. Gifford Sells 9,784 Shares of Crown Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:CCK) Stock

Crown Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:CCK) COO Gerard H. Gifford sold 9,784 shares of Crown stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $92.24, for a total value of $902,476.16. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 123,399 shares in the company, valued at $11,382,323.76. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link.

Crown Price Performance

NYSE:CCK opened at $88.94 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $89.84 and its 200 day simple moving average is $84.92. The company has a market cap of $10.73 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.46, a P/E/G ratio of 2.98 and a beta of 1.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.57, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a current ratio of 1.30. Crown Holdings, Inc. has a 52-week low of $66.00 and a 52-week high of $100.39.

Crown (NYSE:CCK) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, July 24th. The industrial products company reported $1.68 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.65 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $3.11 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.46 billion. Crown had a return on equity of 27.45% and a net margin of 3.84%. The business’s revenue was down 11.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $2.10 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Crown Holdings, Inc. will post 6.19 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Crown Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 24th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 10th were given a dividend of $0.24 per share. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.08%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, August 9th. Crown’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 24.24%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Crown

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of CCK. BlackRock Inc. increased its position in Crown by 68.6% during the second quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 11,889,202 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $1,032,815,000 after buying an additional 4,836,470 shares during the last quarter. Nomura Holdings Inc. grew its position in shares of Crown by 202.1% in the first quarter. Nomura Holdings Inc. now owns 3,019,873 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $249,774,000 after purchasing an additional 2,020,200 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Crown in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $123,506,000. State Street Corp grew its position in shares of Crown by 55.5% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,709,202 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $322,218,000 after purchasing an additional 1,323,107 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Eminence Capital LP acquired a new position in shares of Crown in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $105,665,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 95.18% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CCK has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Citigroup lifted their target price on Crown from $102.00 to $114.00 in a report on Wednesday, July 26th. Loop Capital lifted their target price on Crown from $112.00 to $128.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 26th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their target price on Crown from $97.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 27th. Barclays boosted their price target on Crown from $95.00 to $110.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 25th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on Crown from $80.00 to $86.00 in a report on Wednesday, July 26th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $103.38.

About Crown

Crown Holdings, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, supplies rigid packaging products in Pennsylvania and internationally. It operates through Americas Beverage, European Beverage, Asia Pacific, and Transit Packaging segments. The Americas Beverage segment manufactures recyclable aluminum beverage cans and ends, glass bottles, steel crowns, and aluminum caps.