Crown Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:CCK) Short Interest Up 15.1% in November

Crown Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:CCK) was the target of a large increase in short interest in the month of November. As of November 15th, there was short interest totalling 2,740,000 shares, an increase of 15.1% from the October 31st total of 2,380,000 shares. Currently, 2.3% of the company’s stock are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 1,100,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 2.5 days.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have recently commented on CCK shares. Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on shares of Crown from $105.00 to $113.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Truist Financial lifted their target price on shares of Crown from $95.00 to $103.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. Mizuho set a $110.00 target price on Crown in a report on Friday, October 18th. Citigroup lifted their price target on Crown from $100.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on Crown from $105.00 to $109.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, October 21st. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $106.62.

Crown Stock Performance

Crown stock traded down $0.38 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $92.03. The stock had a trading volume of 853,958 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,076,995. The company has a quick ratio of 0.84, a current ratio of 1.21 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.19. The firm has a market capitalization of $11.01 billion, a PE ratio of 113.61, a P/E/G ratio of 2.05 and a beta of 0.84. Crown has a 12 month low of $69.61 and a 12 month high of $98.46. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $93.40 and its 200 day moving average price is $87.24.

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

Crown Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 27th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 14th were paid a $0.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, November 14th. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.09%. Crown’s dividend payout ratio is currently 123.46%.

Insider Activity at Crown

In other news, Director James H. Miller sold 1,006 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $95.60, for a total value of $96,173.60. Following the transaction, the director now owns 12,424 shares in the company, valued at $1,187,734.40. This trade represents a 7.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Timothy J. Donahue sold 7,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, September 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $90.58, for a total value of $679,350.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 578,678 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $52,416,653.24. The trade was a 1.28 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 33,506 shares of company stock valued at $3,157,399. 0.90% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Crown

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. FMR LLC grew its stake in Crown by 9.3% during the third 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. grew its position in shares of Crown by 7.8% during the 3rd quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 5,676,902 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $544,301,000 after purchasing an additional 412,973 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its holdings in shares of Crown by 1.8% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,000,402 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $383,559,000 after purchasing an additional 69,260 shares during the period. Sessa Capital IM L.P. raised its position in shares of Crown by 153.0% in the second quarter. Sessa Capital IM L.P. now owns 3,289,374 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $244,697,000 after buying an additional 1,989,374 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in 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 valued at $197,242,000 after buying an additional 82,764 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.