Crane (NYSE:CR) Shares Bought by Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P.

Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. lifted its holdings in Crane (NYSE:CR) by 36.5% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 132,238 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after purchasing an additional 35,340 shares during the period. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. owned about 0.23% of Crane worth $20,068,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in CR. Sanctuary Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Crane during the second quarter valued at approximately $884,000. UMB Bank n.a. increased its stake in shares of Crane by 81.8% in the third quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 220 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $35,000 after acquiring an additional 99 shares during the last quarter. Ritholtz Wealth Management raised its holdings in shares of Crane by 5.5% during the third quarter. Ritholtz Wealth Management now owns 6,710 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $1,062,000 after acquiring an additional 349 shares in the last quarter. ORG Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new stake in Crane during the third quarter valued at $30,000. Finally, Creative Planning grew its stake in Crane by 17.6% in the third quarter. Creative Planning now owns 14,983 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $2,372,000 after purchasing an additional 2,247 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CR has been the subject of several research reports. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price target 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 lifted their target price 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 upgraded shares of Crane from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, DA Davidson upped their price objective on shares of Crane from $185.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $174.80.

Crane Trading Down 0.5 %

NYSE:CR opened at $171.88 on Monday. The company’s 50 day moving average is $161.83 and its 200-day moving average is $159.70. The company has a quick ratio of 0.88, a current ratio of 1.18 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29. Crane has a 12 month low of $118.48 and a 12 month high of $188.52. The firm has a market cap of $9.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.77, a P/E/G ratio of 1.93 and a beta of 1.25.

Crane (NYSE:CR) last announced its earnings results on Monday, January 27th. The conglomerate reported $1.26 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.19 by $0.07. Crane had a net margin of 13.10% and a return on equity of 24.45%. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.90 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that Crane will post 7.87 EPS for the current year.

Crane Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 12th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 28th will be given a $0.23 dividend. This is an increase from Crane’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. This represents a $0.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.54%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 28th. Crane’s payout ratio is currently 18.18%.

Crane Profile

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.