Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Buys Shares of 13,700 Crane (NYSE:CR)

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System bought a new stake in Crane (NYSE:CR) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm bought 13,700 shares of the conglomerate’s stock, valued at approximately $1,619,000.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of CR. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in Crane by 8.0% in the 1st quarter. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. now owns 14,853 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $1,608,000 after buying an additional 1,104 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. increased its holdings in Crane by 3.0% in the 1st quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 10,432 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $1,129,000 after buying an additional 299 shares during the period. HighTower Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Crane by 82.1% in the 1st quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 4,102 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $445,000 after buying an additional 1,849 shares during the period. Citigroup Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Crane by 4.7% during the 1st quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 7,856 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $851,000 after purchasing an additional 355 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of Montreal Can grew its holdings in shares of Crane by 1.1% during the 1st quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 12,777 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $1,408,000 after purchasing an additional 136 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently issued reports on CR. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price target on shares of Crane from $135.00 to $150.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday. Bank of America lifted their price target on shares of Crane from $110.00 to $140.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 5th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered shares of Crane from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $125.00.

Crane Stock Up 0.1 %

NYSE:CR opened at $129.54 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $129.57 and its 200 day simple moving average is $114.60. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a current ratio of 1.18 and a quick ratio of 0.88. Crane has a one year low of $67.28 and a one year high of $139.34. The company has a market cap of $7.40 billion, a PE ratio of 35.11, a P/E/G ratio of 1.93 and a beta of 1.49.

Crane (NYSE:CR) last posted its earnings results on Monday, January 29th. The conglomerate reported $0.90 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.81 by $0.09. Crane had a net margin of 13.10% and a return on equity of 24.45%. The business had revenue of $532.90 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $519.55 million. On average, research analysts anticipate that Crane will post 7.87 earnings per share for the current year.

Crane Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 13th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 29th were given a dividend of $0.205 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 28th. This is an increase from Crane’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.18. This represents a $0.82 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.63%. Crane’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 22.22%.

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.