Crown Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:CCK) Shares Sold by John G Ullman & Associates Inc.

John G Ullman & Associates Inc. trimmed its holdings in shares of Crown Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:CCK) by 0.5% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 28,589 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 145 shares during the quarter. John G Ullman & Associates Inc.’s holdings in Crown were worth $2,633,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Hudson Bay Capital Management LP raised its holdings in Crown by 55.6% in the third quarter. Hudson Bay Capital Management LP now owns 70,000 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $6,194,000 after acquiring an additional 25,000 shares in the last quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System bought a new stake in Crown during the fourth quarter valued at $3,122,000. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in Crown by 4.1% during the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 504,720 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $44,658,000 after purchasing an additional 19,666 shares during the last quarter. SeaTown Holdings Pte. Ltd. increased its stake in Crown by 19.6% during the third quarter. SeaTown Holdings Pte. Ltd. now owns 86,100 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $7,618,000 after purchasing an additional 14,100 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Comerica Bank bought a new stake in Crown during the third quarter valued at $5,019,000. 90.93% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have weighed in on CCK shares. Morgan Stanley started coverage on shares of Crown in a research note on Monday, March 18th. They set an “equal weight” rating and a $87.00 target price for the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of Crown from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $85.00 target price for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 7th. Mizuho lowered their price target on shares of Crown from $105.00 to $96.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, February 6th. Wolfe Research assumed coverage on shares of Crown in a research report on Friday, March 1st. They set an “outperform” rating and a $102.00 price target for the company. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price target on shares of Crown from $110.00 to $97.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 8th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $99.21.

Crown Trading Up 1.0 %

CCK stock traded up $0.75 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $77.67. 1,084,329 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,197,745. The company has a current ratio of 1.15, a quick ratio of 0.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.34. Crown Holdings, Inc. has a 52-week low of $69.61 and a 52-week high of $96.35. The company has a market cap of $9.38 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.63, a P/E/G ratio of 2.59 and a beta of 0.91. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $76.76 and its 200-day moving average is $82.88.

Crown (NYSE:CCK) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 6th. The industrial products company reported $1.24 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.43 by ($0.19). The business had revenue of $2.86 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.96 billion. Crown had a net margin of 3.75% and a return on equity of 25.75%. Crown’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.17 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Crown Holdings, Inc. will post 5.91 earnings per share for the current year.

Crown Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 14th were issued a $0.25 dividend. This is an increase from Crown’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, March 13th. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.29%. Crown’s dividend payout ratio is currently 26.60%.

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.