Bank of America Cuts Crown (NYSE:CCK) Price Target to $101.00

Crown (NYSE:CCK) had its target price decreased by Bank of America from $107.00 to $101.00 in a research note published on Monday morning,Benzinga reports. Bank of America currently has a buy rating on the industrial products company’s stock.

Several other analysts have also recently issued reports on the stock. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of Crown from $105.00 to $109.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, October 21st. Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on Crown from $100.00 to $110.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, October 21st. StockNews.com raised Crown from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on Crown from $105.00 to $113.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on shares of Crown from $105.00 to $88.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Crown presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $104.62.

Crown Price Performance

Shares of Crown stock opened at $79.94 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $9.56 billion, a PE ratio of 98.69, a PEG ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 0.86. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $88.54 and a 200 day moving average of $87.79. The company has a current ratio of 1.21, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.19. Crown has a 12 month low of $69.61 and a 12 month high of $98.46.

Crown (NYSE:CCK) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, October 17th. The industrial products company reported $1.99 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.81 by $0.18. Crown had a return on equity of 24.57% and a net margin of 0.83%. The firm had revenue of $3.07 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.07 billion. On average, research analysts expect that Crown will post 6.34 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Crown Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 27th. Investors of record on Thursday, November 14th were issued a $0.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, November 14th. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.25%. Crown’s payout ratio is 123.46%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, COO Gerard H. Gifford sold 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $95.89, for a total value of $958,900.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 114,402 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,970,007.78. This represents a 8.04 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Timothy J. Donahue sold 7,500 shares of Crown stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $96.73, for a total transaction of $725,475.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 563,678 shares in the company, valued at approximately $54,524,572.94. The trade was a 1.31 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.90% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Crown

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its stake in shares of Crown by 110.9% during the 3rd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 310 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $30,000 after purchasing an additional 163 shares during the last quarter. Covestor Ltd raised its holdings in Crown by 156.5% in the third quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 454 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $44,000 after purchasing an additional 277 shares in the last quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group purchased a new stake in shares of Crown during the third quarter valued at about $44,000. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Crown in the 3rd quarter valued at about $48,000. Finally, Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. purchased a new position in shares of Crown in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $55,000. Institutional investors own 90.93% of the company’s stock.

About Crown

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.