Crane NXT, Co. (NYSE:CXT) Stock Rated “Moderate Buy” by Sell-Side Brokerages

Crane NXT, Co. (NYSE:CXT) has been assigned an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from the eight analysts that are covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, five have given a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month price objective among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $66.83.

CXT has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. DA Davidson restated a “buy” rating and set a $85.00 price target on shares of Crane NXT in a research report on Friday, September 18th. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Crane NXT from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, October 31st. Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on shares of Crane NXT in a research note on Tuesday, September 22nd. They set a “buy” rating and a $60.00 price objective on the stock. Robert W. Baird set a $68.00 target price on Crane NXT in a report on Friday, August 7th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Crane NXT in a report on Wednesday.

Institutional Trading of Crane NXT

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of CXT. BlackRock Inc. bought a new position in shares of Crane NXT during the 2nd quarter valued at about $329,797,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp bought a new stake in shares of Crane NXT in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $23,160,000. Bank of America Corp DE bought a new stake in shares of Crane NXT in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $20,900,000. Ancora Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Crane NXT in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $20,102,000. Finally, Neumeier Poma Investment Counsel LLC acquired a new stake in Crane NXT during the second quarter valued at approximately $19,212,882. Institutional investors own 77.49% of the company’s stock.

Crane NXT Price Performance

CXT stock traded down $0.09 during trading on Friday, hitting $56.91. The company had a trading volume of 366,621 shares, compared to its average volume of 759,936. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.75 and a beta of 1.03. The business has a 50 day moving average of $52.84 and a 200 day moving average of $48.30. Crane NXT has a fifty-two week low of $35.71 and a fifty-two week high of $63.57. The company has a current ratio of 1.31, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89.

Crane NXT (NYSE:CXT) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, November 4th. The company reported $1.28 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.21 by $0.07. The firm had revenue of $497.10 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $495.00 million. Crane NXT had a net margin of 6.91% and a return on equity of 19.55%. Crane NXT’s revenue was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.28 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Crane NXT will post 4.37 earnings per share for the current year.

Crane NXT Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, December 9th. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 30th will be given a dividend of $0.18 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, November 30th. This represents a $0.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.3%. Crane NXT’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 32.58%.

About Crane NXT

Crane NXT is a global industrial technology company focused on authentication and automated payment technologies. It designs and manufactures products and systems used to protect, manage and authenticate currency, goods and transactions. Its offerings include banknote security features, currency-processing equipment and payment and merchandising technologies, such as cash and cashless payment systems for vending and other self-service applications. The company also provides authentication solutions that help governments and businesses identify counterfeit currency and products.