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

Crown Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:CCK) was the recipient of unusually large options trading activity on Friday. Stock traders bought 11,877 put options on the company. This is an increase of approximately 855% compared to the average volume of 1,244 put options.

Crown Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:CCK opened at $80.54 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 99.43, a PEG ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 0.86. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.19, a current ratio of 1.21 and a quick ratio of 0.84. Crown has a one year low of $69.61 and a one year high of $98.46. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $89.13 and its 200-day moving average price is $87.59.

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

Crown Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Timothy J. Donahue sold 7,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $96.73, for a total value of $725,475.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 563,678 shares in the company, valued at approximately $54,524,572.94. This represents a 1.31 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, COO Gerard H. Gifford sold 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $95.89, for a total transaction of $958,900.00. Following the completion of the sale, 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 position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 25,000 shares of company stock valued at $2,381,875. Corporate insiders own 0.90% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Crown

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Sessa Capital IM L.P. raised its holdings in shares of Crown by 153.0% during the 2nd quarter. Sessa Capital IM L.P. now owns 3,289,374 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $244,697,000 after acquiring an additional 1,989,374 shares in the last quarter. Metropolis Capital Ltd boosted its stake in shares of Crown by 269.7% during the 3rd quarter. Metropolis Capital Ltd now owns 1,455,752 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $139,578,000 after purchasing an additional 1,062,001 shares during the period. Jennison Associates LLC grew its stake in shares of Crown by 125.0% during the third quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 1,352,711 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $129,698,000 after buying an additional 751,530 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its stake in Crown by 9.3% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 8,787,606 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $842,556,000 after purchasing an additional 749,085 shares during the period. Finally, 1832 Asset Management L.P. lifted its holdings in Crown by 31.5% during the 2nd quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. now owns 1,976,500 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $147,032,000 after buying an additional 473,000 shares in the last quarter. 90.93% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on CCK shares. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on Crown from $105.00 to $109.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, October 21st. StockNews.com upgraded Crown from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on shares of Crown from $105.00 to $113.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of Crown from $97.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, October 21st. Finally, Loop Capital boosted their price target on shares of Crown from $120.00 to $129.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, October 21st. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned 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.

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.