Crane (CR) Q1 Earnings Report Preview: What To Look For

Industrial conglomerate Crane (NYSE:CR) will be reporting results tomorrow after market hours. Here’s what investors should know.

Crane beat analysts’ revenue expectations by 1.2% last quarter, reporting revenues of $544.1 million, up 12.3% year on year. It was a satisfactory quarter for the company, with an impressive beat of analysts’ organic revenue estimates but full-year EPS guidance missing analysts’ expectations.

Is Crane a buy or sell going into earnings? Read our full analysis here, it’s free.

This quarter, analysts are expecting Crane’s revenue to grow 7.6% year on year to $549.1 million, improving from its flat revenue in the same quarter last year. Adjusted earnings are expected to come in at $1.31 per share.

Analysts covering the company have generally reconfirmed their estimates over the last 30 days, suggesting they anticipate the business to stay the course heading into earnings. Crane has missed Wall Street’s revenue estimates five times over the last two years.

Looking at Crane’s peers in the general industrial machinery segment, some have already reported their Q1 results, giving us a hint as to what we can expect. GE Aerospace posted flat year-on-year revenue, missing analysts’ expectations by 7.9%, and 3M reported a revenue decline of 1%, topping estimates by 4.6%. GE Aerospace traded up 8.6% following the results while 3M was also up 8%.

Read our full analysis of GE Aerospace’s results here and 3M’s results here.

Investors in the general industrial machinery segment have had fairly steady hands going into earnings, with share prices down 1.4% on average over the last month. Crane is down 4.4% during the same time and is heading into earnings with an average analyst price target of $173.91 (compared to the current share price of $146.44).

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