Investors Purchase High Volume of Crown Put Options (NYSE:CCK)

Crown Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:CCK) was the recipient of unusually large options trading activity on Tuesday. Traders bought 4,876 put options on the stock. This represents an increase of approximately 164% compared to the average daily volume of 1,848 put options.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on CCK. Mizuho reduced their price target on shares of Crown from $105.00 to $96.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, February 6th. Morgan Stanley began coverage on shares of Crown in a research note on Monday, March 18th. They issued an “equal weight” rating and a $87.00 price target for the company. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price target on shares of Crown from $78.00 to $76.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Truist Financial reaffirmed a “hold” rating and issued a $88.00 price target (down from $100.00) on shares of Crown in a research note on Wednesday, March 27th. Finally, UBS Group assumed coverage on shares of Crown in a research note on Tuesday, January 16th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $112.00 price target for the company. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Crown presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $99.21.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Crown news, CEO Timothy J. Donahue sold 22,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $85.18, for a total value of $1,916,550.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 616,178 shares in the company, valued at approximately $52,486,042.04. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 0.90% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CCK. SG Americas Securities LLC acquired a new position in Crown in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $614,000. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. increased its stake in Crown by 3.0% in the 3rd quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. now owns 46,708 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $4,133,000 after buying an additional 1,376 shares during the period. Bfsg LLC acquired a new position in shares of Crown during the 3rd quarter worth $230,000. Sumitomo Life Insurance Co. increased its stake in shares of Crown by 6.1% during the 3rd quarter. Sumitomo Life Insurance Co. now owns 17,898 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $1,584,000 after purchasing an additional 1,032 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Commonwealth Equity Services LLC increased its stake in shares of Crown by 2.7% during the 3rd quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 6,903 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $611,000 after purchasing an additional 183 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.93% of the company’s stock.

Crown Stock Up 1.2 %

Shares of NYSE:CCK opened at $82.07 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.34, a quick ratio of 0.77 and a current ratio of 1.15. The company has a market cap of $9.91 billion, a PE ratio of 21.83, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.73 and a beta of 0.91. Crown has a 52 week low of $69.61 and a 52 week high of $96.35. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $77.78 and a 200 day simple moving average of $82.62.

Crown (NYSE:CCK) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, April 29th. The industrial products company reported $1.02 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.96 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $2.78 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.93 billion. Crown had a net margin of 3.75% and a return on equity of 25.75%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 6.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.20 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Crown will post 5.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Crown Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 14th were paid a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.22%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 13th. This is a positive change from Crown’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. 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.