Wall Street Zen Downgrades Crown (NYSE:CCK) to Buy

Key Points

• Crown Holdings has been downgraded by Wall Street Zen from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating.
• Analysts from UBS, JPMorgan, and Loop Capital have raised their price targets for Crown, reflecting a general positive outlook, with a consensus target price of $120.67.
• Crown reported earnings of $2.15 per share for the last quarter, exceeding expectations and achieving a 3.6% year-over-year revenue increase.

Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Crown (NYSE:CCK - Free Report) from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating in a research report released on Saturday.

A number of other equities analysts also recently issued reports on the company. Baird R W downgraded Crown from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 17th. Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on Crown from $105.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on Crown from $108.00 to $112.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 23rd. UBS Group raised their price objective on Crown from $125.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 22nd. Finally, Bank of America raised their price objective on Crown from $110.00 to $117.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 9th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $120.67.

Crown Trading Up 0.5%

Crown stock traded up $0.53 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $101.31. The stock had a trading volume of 412,330 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,291,153. The company has a quick ratio of 0.69, a current ratio of 1.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.67. The stock has a market cap of $11.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.28, a P/E/G ratio of 1.55 and a beta of 0.74. Crown has a one year low of $75.98 and a one year high of $109.48. The business's 50 day simple moving average is $103.00 and its 200-day simple moving average is $94.69.

Crown (NYSE:CCK - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Monday, July 21st. The industrial products company reported $2.15 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.86 by $0.29. The firm had revenue of $3.15 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.10 billion. Crown had a return on equity of 27.15% and a net margin of 4.64%. The business's quarterly revenue was up 3.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.81 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts predict that Crown will post 6.96 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Crown Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 21st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 7th will be issued a $0.26 dividend. This represents a $1.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.0%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, August 7th. Crown's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 21.85%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CAO Gerard H. Gifford sold 8,222 shares of Crown stock in a transaction on Friday, July 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $102.93, for a total transaction of $846,290.46. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 122,585 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,617,674.05. This trade represents a 6.29% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, VP Christy L. Kalaus sold 2,130 shares of Crown stock in a transaction on Friday, May 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $99.41, for a total value of $211,743.30. Following the sale, the vice president owned 4,500 shares in the company, valued at $447,345. This trade represents a 32.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 0.90% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of Crown

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its stake in shares of Crown by 5.3% in the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 3,300,662 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $339,902,000 after buying an additional 165,600 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Crown by 3.7% in the first quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,768,476 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $156,988,000 after buying an additional 63,395 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. raised its stake in shares of Crown by 412.2% in the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,719,296 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $153,464,000 after buying an additional 1,383,624 shares during the period. Nordea Investment Management AB raised its stake in shares of Crown by 16.7% in the second quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 1,691,770 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $174,015,000 after buying an additional 242,072 shares during the period. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its stake in shares of Crown by 5.4% in the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,637,155 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $146,117,000 after buying an additional 83,523 shares during the period. 90.93% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.