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It's been a pretty great week for Crane Company (NYSE:CR) shareholders, with its shares surging 13% to US$161 in the week since its latest first-quarter results. It was a credible result overall, with revenues of US$558m and statutory earnings per share of US$1.34 both in line with analyst estimates, showing that Crane is executing in line with expectations. Earnings are an important time for investors, as they can track a company's performance, look at what the analysts are forecasting for next year, and see if there's been a change in sentiment towards the company. Readers will be glad to know we've aggregated the latest statutory forecasts to see whether the analysts have changed their mind on Crane after the latest results.
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Taking into account the latest results, the current consensus from Crane's nine analysts is for revenues of US$2.28b in 2025. This would reflect an okay 4.6% increase on its revenue over the past 12 months. Per-share earnings are expected to grow 12% to US$5.62. In the lead-up to this report, the analysts had been modelling revenues of US$2.27b and earnings per share (EPS) of US$5.56 in 2025. So it's pretty clear that, although the analysts have updated their estimates, there's been no major change in expectations for the business following the latest results.
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It will come as no surprise then, to learn that the consensus price target is largely unchanged at US$179. That's not the only conclusion we can draw from this data however, as some investors also like to consider the spread in estimates when evaluating analyst price targets. Currently, the most bullish analyst values Crane at US$200 per share, while the most bearish prices it at US$150. This is a very narrow spread of estimates, implying either that Crane is an easy company to value, or - more likely - the analysts are relying heavily on some key assumptions.
One way to get more context on these forecasts is to look at how they compare to both past performance, and how other companies in the same industry are performing. For example, we noticed that Crane's rate of growth is expected to accelerate meaningfully, with revenues forecast to exhibit 6.2% growth to the end of 2025 on an annualised basis. That is well above its historical decline of 9.8% a year over the past five years. By contrast, our data suggests that other companies (with analyst coverage) in the industry are forecast to see their revenue grow 4.1% per year. So it looks like Crane is expected to grow faster than its competitors, at least for a while.