Crown Sees Unusually Large Options Volume (NYSE:CCK)

Crown Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:CCK - Get Free Report) was the target of some unusual options trading activity on Friday. Investors purchased 11,877 put options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 855% compared to the average daily volume of 1,244 put options.

Insider Activity

In other Crown news, COO Gerard H. Gifford sold 10,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $95.89, for a total value of $958,900.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 114,402 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $10,970,007.78. This represents a 8.04 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Timothy J. Donahue sold 7,500 shares of Crown stock in a transaction on Monday, October 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $93.00, for a total value of $697,500.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 571,178 shares of the company's stock, valued at $53,119,554. This trade represents a 1.30 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 25,000 shares of company stock worth $2,381,875 in the last 90 days. 0.90% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Crown

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CCK. 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. raised its position in Crown by 7.8% in the third 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 during the period. State Street Corp lifted its stake in shares of Crown by 1.8% during 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 in the last quarter. Sessa Capital IM L.P. boosted 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 during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Crown by 4.2% in 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 in the last quarter. 90.93% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Crown Trading Down 0.8 %

Shares of NYSE CCK traded down $0.67 on Friday, reaching $80.54. 890,988 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 794,894. The company has a 50 day moving average of $89.13 and a 200 day moving average of $87.59. The company has a current ratio of 1.21, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.19. Crown has a fifty-two week low of $69.61 and a fifty-two week high of $98.46. The stock has a market capitalization of $9.64 billion, a PE ratio of 99.43, a P/E/G ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 0.86.

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

Crown Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 27th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 14th were given a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.24%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, November 14th. Crown's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 123.46%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have issued reports on CCK. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Crown from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday. Truist Financial lifted their price objective on Crown from $95.00 to $103.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on Crown from $105.00 to $113.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Mizuho set a $110.00 price target on Crown in a report on Friday, October 18th. Finally, Loop Capital upped their price objective on Crown from $120.00 to $129.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Monday, October 21st. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $106.62.

Crown Company Profile

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.