Crane (NYSE:CR) Declares Quarterly Dividend of $0.21

Crane (NYSE:CR) announced a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, April 23rd, Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Friday, May 31st will be paid a dividend of 0.205 per share by the conglomerate on Wednesday, June 12th. This represents a $0.82 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.59%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 31st.

Crane has decreased its dividend by an average of 16.3% annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 1 years. Crane has a payout ratio of 14.6% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Crane to earn $8.57 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.82 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 9.6%.

Crane Price Performance

NYSE:CR traded up $7.38 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $138.11. 424,297 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 239,971. Crane has a 1 year low of $67.28 and a 1 year high of $139.54. The company has a market cap of $7.88 billion, a PE ratio of 37.65, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.93 and a beta of 1.49. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $129.69 and its 200 day simple moving average is $115.30. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a current ratio of 1.18.

Crane (NYSE:CR) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, April 22nd. The conglomerate reported $1.22 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.12 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $565.30 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $546.39 million. Crane had a net margin of 13.10% and a return on equity of 24.45%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 10.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.25 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that Crane will post 7.87 EPS for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on CR. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on shares of Crane from $135.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 17th. Bank of America boosted their target price on Crane from $110.00 to $140.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 5th. Finally, StockNews.com cut Crane from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $125.00.

About Crane

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.