Madison Asset Management LLC Cuts Stock Holdings in Crane $CR

Madison Asset Management LLC reduced its stake in Crane (NYSE:CR) by 18.4% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 18,189 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after selling 4,107 shares during the period. Madison Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Crane were worth $3,110,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. grew its position in shares of Crane by 289,020.7% during the fourth quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 7,855,409 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $1,448,773,000 after purchasing an additional 7,852,692 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in Crane during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $198,509,000. Freestone Grove Partners LP purchased a new position in Crane during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $76,171,000. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Crane by 85.6% in the 4th quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 799,864 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $147,519,000 after acquiring an additional 368,816 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Federated Hermes Inc. increased its stake in Crane by 4,412.6% in the 4th quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 240,836 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $44,417,000 after acquiring an additional 235,499 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have recently commented on CR shares. Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on Crane from $215.00 to $242.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday. Weiss Ratings cut shares of Crane from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research report on Monday, May 4th. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Crane from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, May 9th. DA Davidson reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $235.00 price objective on shares of Crane in a research report on Monday, June 1st. Finally, BMO Capital Markets started coverage on shares of Crane in a research note on Monday. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $253.00 price objective for the company. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have assigned a Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $234.00.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Susan D. Lynch acquired 150 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 30th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $177.38 per share, for a total transaction of $26,607.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 370 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $65,630.60. The trade was a 68.18% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 2.12% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Key Stories Impacting Crane

Here are the key news stories impacting Crane this week:

• Positive Sentiment: BMO Capital Markets upgraded Crane (CR) to strong-buy, reinforcing a bullish analyst view on the company. Crane upgraded by BMO Capital Markets to strong-buy
• Positive Sentiment: Crane’s recent earnings report was solid, with the company beating consensus on both EPS and revenue and raising FY2026 guidance, which may continue to support the stock over time.
• Neutral Sentiment: News items about crane accidents and collapses appear unrelated to Crane Company (CR) and are unlikely to affect the stock.
• Neutral Sentiment: General analyst commentary from other sources also points to renewed attention on Crane, but no additional material company-specific developments were reported.

Crane Price Performance

NYSE:CR opened at $216.97 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $12.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.74, a PEG ratio of 1.93 and a beta of 1.01. Crane has a 1 year low of $159.58 and a 1 year high of $226.46. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $201.78 and a 200-day simple moving average of $193.53. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a current ratio of 1.18 and a quick ratio of 0.88.

Crane (NYSE:CR) last released its earnings results on Monday, April 27th. The conglomerate reported $1.65 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.44 by $0.21. Crane had a return on equity of 24.45% and a net margin of 13.10%.The firm had revenue of $696.40 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $672.74 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.39 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 24.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Crane has set its FY 2026 guidance at 6.650-6.850 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Crane will post 7.87 EPS for the current year.

Crane Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 10th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 29th were paid a dividend of $0.255 per share. This represents a $1.02 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 29th. Crane’s payout ratio is presently 18.35%.

Crane Company Profile

Crane Co, headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut, is a diversified manufacturer of engineered industrial products serving customers around the world. The company operates through two primary segments: Aerospace & Electronics and Engineered Materials. Its Aerospace & Electronics division designs and produces valves, fittings, manifolds, and filtration systems for aircraft fuel, hydraulics, and environmental control systems. The Engineered Materials segment focuses on advanced polymers, heat exchangers, and specialized composite solutions for industries including chemical processing, semiconductor manufacturing, and power generation.

With roots dating back to its founding in 1855 in Chicago by R.T.