Crown (NYSE:CCK) Upgraded at StockNews.com

Crown (NYSE:CCK) was upgraded by investment analysts at StockNews.com from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a note issued to investors on Thursday.

Several other equities analysts have also weighed in on the company. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on Crown from $105.00 to $113.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Loop Capital boosted their price objective on shares of Crown from $120.00 to $129.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, October 21st. Robert W. Baird raised their target price on shares of Crown from $100.00 to $110.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, October 21st. Citigroup upped their price target on shares of Crown from $100.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Finally, Barclays raised their price objective on Crown from $100.00 to $112.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, October 21st. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $106.62.

Crown Price Performance

CCK opened at $82.69 on Thursday. Crown has a 1 year low of $69.61 and a 1 year high of $98.46. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $89.68 and its 200 day simple moving average is $87.62. The stock has a market capitalization of $9.89 billion, a PE ratio of 102.09, a P/E/G ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 0.83. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.19, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a current ratio of 1.21.

Crown (NYSE:CCK) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 17th. The industrial products company reported $1.99 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.81 by $0.18. The company had revenue of $3.07 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.07 billion. Crown had a net margin of 0.83% and a return on equity of 24.57%. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Crown will post 6.34 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Crown

In other news, CEO Timothy J. Donahue sold 7,500 shares of Crown stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $93.00, for a total value of $697,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 571,178 shares in the company, valued at approximately $53,119,554. This trade represents a 1.30 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, 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 sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 114,402 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,970,007.78. This represents a 8.04 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 25,000 shares of company stock valued at $2,381,875. 0.90% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Crown

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. FMR LLC boosted its stake in Crown by 9.3% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 8,787,606 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $842,556,000 after acquiring an additional 749,085 shares during the period. Victory Capital Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Crown by 7.8% in the 3rd quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 5,676,902 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $544,301,000 after purchasing an additional 412,973 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its position in Crown by 1.8% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,000,402 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $383,559,000 after purchasing an additional 69,260 shares during the period. Sessa Capital IM L.P. grew its stake in Crown by 153.0% during the 2nd quarter. Sessa Capital IM L.P. now owns 3,289,374 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $244,697,000 after buying an additional 1,989,374 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in Crown by 4.2% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,061,869 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $197,242,000 after buying an additional 82,764 shares during the period. 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.