Crown Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:CCK) Short Interest Up 21.7% in December

Crown Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:CCK) was the recipient of a large growth in short interest in the month of December. As of December 15th, there was short interest totalling 4,480,000 shares, a growth of 21.7% from the November 30th total of 3,680,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 1,240,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 3.6 days. Approximately 3.8% of the shares of the company are sold short.

Insider Activity at Crown

In other news, CEO Timothy J. Donahue sold 7,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, October 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $93.00, for a total value of $697,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, 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 transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, COO Gerard H. Gifford sold 10,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $95.89, for a total transaction of $958,900.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 114,402 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,970,007.78. This trade represents a 8.04 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 25,000 shares of company stock worth $2,381,875 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.90% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Crown

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Crown by 9.3% during the 3rd 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 in the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. boosted its holdings in 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 acquiring an additional 412,973 shares during the period. State Street Corp grew its position in Crown by 1.8% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,000,402 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $383,559,000 after acquiring an additional 69,260 shares in the last quarter. Sessa Capital IM L.P. raised its stake in shares of Crown by 153.0% during the second quarter. Sessa Capital IM L.P. now owns 3,289,374 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $244,697,000 after purchasing an additional 1,989,374 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Crown by 4.2% during 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 purchasing an additional 82,764 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.93% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have commented on CCK. Mizuho set a $110.00 target price on shares of Crown in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on shares of Crown from $105.00 to $109.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, October 21st. StockNews.com lowered Crown from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 25th. Citigroup lifted their price objective on Crown from $100.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Finally, Barclays upped their target price on Crown from $100.00 to $112.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, October 21st. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $106.62.

Crown Trading Up 1.0 %

NYSE:CCK traded up $0.80 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $82.69. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 540,058 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,149,561. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.19, a current ratio of 1.21 and a quick ratio of 0.84. The stock has a market cap of $9.89 billion, a P/E ratio of 102.09, a P/E/G ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 0.83. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $90.21 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $87.62. Crown has a twelve month low of $69.61 and a twelve month high of $98.46.

Crown (NYSE:CCK) last released its earnings results on Thursday, October 17th. The industrial products company reported $1.99 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.81 by $0.18. The firm had revenue of $3.07 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.07 billion. Crown had a net margin of 0.83% and a return on equity of 24.57%. On average, equities analysts predict that Crown will post 6.34 EPS for the current year.

Crown Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 27th. Investors of record on Thursday, November 14th were given a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.21%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, November 14th. Crown’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 123.46%.

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.