Owner Scorecard


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CR, Crane

Industrial Machinery capital-intensive

Crane is a leading manufacturer of highly engineered components for challenging, mission-critical applications focused on the aerospace, defense, space and process industry end markets.

Crane Company has delivered innovation and technology-led solutions for customers since its founding in 1855.

We operate a comprehensive set of business processes, philosophies and operational excellence tools to drive continuous improvement throughout our businesses (collectively, the Crane Business System).

Latest annual: FY2025 10-K
CR · Crane
I

The business

What it sells, where the money comes from, the kind of company it is.

Revenue · FY2025
$2.3B
+8.2% YoY · 3% 4-yr CAGR
Vital signs · TTM, with 5-yr average
Revenue $2.4B 5-yr avg $2.0B
Gross margin 42% 5-yr avg 39%
Operating margin 17.3% 5-yr avg 11.9%
ROIC 11% 5-yr avg 12%
Owner-earnings margin 15% 5-yr avg 2%
Free cash flow margin 15% 5-yr avg 2%

The business in brief

read the 10-K →

What this business is and what moves its needle, from its own SEC filings.

What it is
Revenue is Process Flow Technologies (54%) and Aerospace and Electronics (46%).
What moves the needle
Gross margin has run about 40% and operating margin about 13% through the cycle, a solid spread between what it charges and what the product costs to make. The operating margin has swung widely — from 0.3% to 18% — on a steadier 40% gross margin, so what moves it sits below the gross line, in operating spend and one-off charges more than in the cost of the product itself. Inventory runs near 17% of sales, so how fast it turns back into cash — and the risk of writing it down when demand softens — sits alongside the margin. On its own account, the filing leans hardest on customer concentration, set against the numbers in what the filing emphasizes, below.
Is it a good business?
Return on capital has run in the teens (median 14%, above 15% in 2 of 5 years). Owner earnings agree: roughly 7% of revenue reaches owners as cash, consistently. Returns like these are solid but short of clear franchise economics; whether they hold is what the 10-K settles, not the multiple.

Every line is arithmetic on the company's filings, shown in full in the sections below.

Where the money comes from

read the 10-K →

Revenue spreads across 2 segments, the largest Process Flow Technologies at 54%.

Revenue by reportable segment, FY2025
  • Process Flow Technologies54%$1.3B
  • Aerospace and Electronics46%$1.0B
By geographyUnited States59%Europe17%Other international14%United Kingdom6%Canada3%

From the segment footnote of the company's own 10-K. Shares are of total revenue; the profit bar shows each segment's share of segment operating profit, before unallocated corporate costs.

II

The record

Ten years of arithmetic, read across the cycle.

The record, 2021–2025

realized figures from each filing · older years to the left
2021’212022’222023’232024’242025’25TTMTTMMar 2026
Income statement
$2.1B$1.8B$1.9B$2.1B$2.3B$2.4BRevenueRevenue
33%37%40%41%42%42%Gross marginGross mgn
23%28%27%24%21%SG&A / revenueSG&A/rev
2%3%3%2%2%2%R&D / revenueR&D/rev
$222M$5M$250M$356M$424M$423MOperating incomeOp. inc.
10.7%0.3%13.4%16.7%18.4%17.3%Operating marginOp. mgn
$435M$401M$256M$295M$367M$327MNet incomeNet inc.
8%15%18%19%22%23%Effective tax rateTax rate
Cash flow & returns
$185M($499M)$162M$258M$395M$412MOperating cash flowOp. cash
$38M$34M$35M$51M$50M$66MDepreciationDeprec.
($310M)($955M)($155M)($114M)($49M)($7M)Working capital & otherWC & other
$35M$33M$39M$37M$54M$50MCapexCapex
1.7%1.9%2.1%1.7%2.3%2.0%Capex / revenueCapex/rev
$150M($532M)$123M$221M$341M$362MOwner earningsOwner earn.
7.3%−29.9%6.6%10.4%14.8%14.8%Owner earnings marginOE mgn
$150M($532M)$123M$221M$341M$362MFree cash flowFCF
7.3%−29.9%6.6%10.4%14.8%14.8%Free cash flow marginFCF mgn
$0$0$91M$201M$200K$1.4BAcquisitionsAcquis.
$101M$106M$57M$47M$53M$54MDividends paidDiv. paid
$96M$204M$0BuybacksBuybacks
14%0%16%18%12%11%ROICROIC
24%21%19%18%18%16%Return on equityROE
18%16%15%15%15%13%Retained to equityRetained/eq
Balance sheet
$378M$427M$330M$307M$507M$355MCash & investmentsCash+inv
$270M$298M$339M$359M$494MReceivablesReceiv.
$294M$344M$380M$377M$507MInventoryInvent.
$179M$157M$188M$190M$211MAccounts payablePayables
$385M$485M$531M$546M$790MOperating working capitalOper. WC
$1.8B$1.1B$1.4B$2.6B$1.5BCurrent assetsCur. assets
$1.5B$467M$543M$465M$520MCurrent liabilitiesCur. liab.
1.2×2.3×2.6×5.5×2.8×Current ratioCurr. ratio
$723M$520M$576M$662M$684M$1.3BGoodwillGoodwill
$4.4B$2.4B$2.6B$3.9B$4.1BTotal assetsAssets
$0$249M$247M$1.1B$1.2BTotal debtDebt
($427M)($81M)($60M)$642M$884MNet debt / (cash)Net debt
45.2×0.5×11.0×13.1×37.5×17.9×Interest coverageInt. cov.
$1.8B$1.9B$1.4B$1.6B$2.1B$2.1BShareholders’ equityEquity
1.1%1.2%1.4%1.2%1.2%1.1%Stock comp / revenueSBC/rev
Per share
59.2M57.2M57.5M58.3M58.6M58.7MShares out (diluted)Shares
$34.85$31.06$32.38$36.56$39.33$41.63Revenue / shareRev/sh
$7.35$7.01$4.45$5.05$6.26$5.56EPS (diluted)EPS
$2.53$-9.30$2.14$3.79$5.82$6.16Owner earnings / shareOE/sh
$2.53$-9.30$2.14$3.79$5.82$6.16Free cash flow / shareFCF/sh
$1.70$1.85$1.00$0.80$0.90$0.93Dividends / shareDiv/sh
$0.60$0.58$0.68$0.63$0.91$0.85Cap. spending / shareCapex/sh
$31.00$33.24$23.61$28.11$35.17$35.72Book value / shareBVPS
Per-share growththe realized rate an owner's share compounded
4-yr5-yr
Revenue / share+3.1%/yr+3.1%/yr (4-yr)
Owner earnings / share+23.2%/yr+23.2%/yr (4-yr)
EPS−4.0%/yr−4.0%/yr (4-yr)
Dividends / share−14.6%/yr−14.6%/yr (4-yr)
Capital spending / share+11.2%/yr+11.2%/yr (4-yr)
Book value / share+3.2%/yr+3.2%/yr (4-yr)

The record, charted

FY2021–2025

Each measure over its full record; the current point and the worst year marked.

Share count
59Mpeak FY2021
ROIC
12%low FY2022
Gross margin
42%low FY2021
Net debt ÷ owner earnings
1.9×peak FY2025

Owner earnings vs. net income

Owner earningsNet income

The accountant's number, and the cash an owner can take; the gap is the tell.

$341Mowner earningsvs.$367Mnet incomelow FY2022

Where the cash went

ReinvestBuybacksDividendsAcquisitionsRetainedBeyond op. cash

Each year's outlays against its operating cash: the mix, and how it drifts. The hatched cap is spending beyond that year's operating cash — financed from the balance sheet or borrowing, not operations.

FY2021FY2025

Net income is the accountant's number; owner earnings is the cash an owner could take out. The walk between them, off the cash-flow statement, and whether the gap is widening or holding.

In fiscal 2025 the business reported $367M of profit but $341M of owner earnings: $25M less than the profit line, taken out by capital spending and the timing of cash.

Reported net income$367M
Owner earnings$341M · 15% of revenue
FY2025FY2024FY2023FY2022FY2021
Reported net income$367M$295M$256M$401M$435M
Depreciation & amortizationnon-cash charge added back+$50M+$51M+$35M+$34M+$38M
Stock-based compensationreal costnon-cash, but a real cost+$27M+$26M+$26M+$21M+$22M
Working capital & othertiming of cash in and out, other non-cash items−$49M−$114M−$155M−$955M−$310M
Cash from operations$395M$258M$162M($499M)$185M
Capital expenditurecash put back in to keep running and to grow−$54M−$37M−$39M−$33M−$35M
Owner earnings$341M$221M$123M($532M)$150M
Owner-earnings marginowner earnings ÷ revenue15%10%7%-30%7%

Owner earnings is the cash an owner could pull out without starving the business: operating cash less the capital it must spend to hold its position . The cash-flow statement also adds stock comp back as non-cash, but it is a real cost paid in shares; counted as the expense it is (less $27M), owner earnings is nearer $314M.

Maintenance capex is estimated as depreciation where a growing business invests above it; free cash flow is the figure the scorecard's free-cash margin reads.

III

Quality & stewardship

Returns, the balance sheet, capital allocation, and pay.

Owner’s Scorecard

FY2025 10-K · source on SEC EDGAR →

Will it survive?

  • Comfortable
    Operating income $424M ÷ interest expense $11M
    What this means

    Operating profit covers interest with the kind of margin Graham wanted for a defensive holding. Necessary, not sufficient, it says solvent, not cheap.

  • How heavy is the debt, net of cash? $642M · 1.5× operating profit
    Modest net debt
    Cash $507M − debt $1.1B
    What this means

    Netting $507M of cash and short-term investments against $1.1B of debt leaves $642M owed, about 1.5× a year's operating profit (2.7× on the gross debt, before the cash). Net debt is the leverage figure that matters: the cash is already set against the debt. Strategic or illiquid investments aren't counted here.

  • Long (60+ days)
    DSO 57 + DIO 103 − DPO 52 days
    What this means

    Days cash is tied up between paying suppliers and collecting from customers. Lower is better; a long cycle means growth itself eats cash.

Is it a good business?

  • Solid through the cycle
    5-yr median, range 0%–18%; 12% latest = NOPAT $333M ÷ invested capital $2.7B
    Industry peers: median 11%
    What this means

    The rate the business earns on the money tied up in it, Buffett's north star, because over time a stock tracks the ROIC beneath it. Above ~15% sustained hints at a moat; a return below the cost of capital (~8%) erodes value as a business grows rather than building it — the test Buffett weighs most. The headline is the median of the last 5 years (it ran 12% most recently), so one peak or trough year doesn't set the verdict. Asset-light businesses (R&D expensed, little capital) read artificially high, pair this with Owner Earnings.

  • Solid through the cycle
    5-yr median margin, range -30%–15%; latest $341M = operating cash $395M − maintenance capex $54M
    Industry peers: median 11%
    What this means

    What an owner could take out without starving the business: operating cash less the maintenance capital it must spend to hold its position — Buffett's owner earnings. That's 15% of revenue this year, a 7% median across 5 years. Treating stock comp as the real expense it is (less $27M of SBC) leaves $314M.

  • Cash-backed
    Cash from ops $395M ÷ net income $367M
    What this means

    How much of reported profit showed up as operating cash. Above 1× is reassuring; well below suggests earnings lean on accruals. One year is noisy, growth and working-capital swings distort it, and this is operating cash, not free cash. Watch the multi-year trend.

How is the cash used?

  • Reinvests most of it
    Dividends + buybacks $53M ÷ Owner Earnings $341M
    What this means

    Of $341M Owner Earnings, $53M (15%) went back to shareholders, $53M dividends, $0 buybacks. Returning most of it is the mark of a mature business with little left to reinvest at a high return; reinvesting most could mean a long runway, or empire-building. The split doesn't say which; the return earned on it (see ROIC) does.

  • Investing or harvesting? 1.07×
    Maintaining
    Capex $54M ÷ depreciation $50M
    What this means

    Descriptive, not a grade. Above ~1× means investing faster than assets wear out (growth, or, sustained for years, today's earnings carrying less depreciation than tomorrow's will). Below means spending less than it's wearing out (efficiency, or a melting asset base). The ratio won't tell you which; the filings will.

Graham’s defensive tests · 5 of 5 met

Graham’s numerical criteria for the defensive investor (The Intelligent Investor, ch. 14), run on the filings. A floor of safety, not a buy signal; many fine modern businesses fail his strictest liquidity rules by design.

  • Adequate size Pass
    Revenue ≥ $2B · $2.3B
    What this means

    Big enough to weather a storm. Graham's 1972 floor was ~$100M of sales (≈ $700M today); we use a $2B revenue line as a conservative modern stand-in.

  • Strong liquidity Pass
    Current ratio ≥ 2× · 5.53×
    What this means

    Current assets at least twice current liabilities, near-term bills covered without touching the business. Strict by design: many cash-rich modern firms run leaner and miss it, holding their cushion in longer-dated securities.

  • Conservative debt Pass
    Debt ≤ working capital · $1.1B vs $2.1B WC
    What this means

    Graham's rule that borrowings not exceed net current assets. Capital-heavy and buyback-heavy firms routinely fail it, read it next to interest coverage, not alone.

  • Earnings stability Pass
    A profit every year (5-yr record) · no losses
    What this means

    Graham wanted earnings in each of the past ten years, the stability a defensive owner leans on.

  • Dividend record Pass
    Uninterrupted dividends · paid every year (5)
    What this means

    An unbroken dividend was Graham's mark of durability. He wanted twenty years; the filings show about ten, and a single suspension breaks the streak. Non-payers, many fine modern compounders, fall outside his defensive net by design.

  • Moderate price
    P/E ≤ 15 and P/E × P/B ≤ 22.5 · decided by the price
    What this means

    Graham's valuation gate, the wall he kept between a sound business and a sound investment. Three-year average earnings are $5.29/share (latest year $6.35), the averaged base the calculator's gate runs on, and book value is $35.69/share. Enter a price in “What the price implies” just below for the P/E, P/B, and whether it clears. But this is the rule Buffett outgrew: there's no hard P/E law, and a wonderful business can deserve a far richer multiple if the thesis holds, treat it as the bargain-hunter's floor, not a verdict on the price.

Durability & moat, 2021–2025

Whether the record’s returns held, and what the capital reinvested earned.

  • Profitable years 5 of 5
    What this means

    Never lost money over the record, the earnings stability Graham insisted on.

  • Return on capital ≥ 15% 2 of 4 yrs
    What this means

    A moat shows up as a high return on invested capital that holds year after year, not one good vintage.

  • Operating margin 6% → 18% (2-yr avg ends)

    In the filing’s words Input costs rose and the filing says it recovered them in price — consistent with the margin holding here.

    What this means

    Through the cycle the operating margin widened — about 6% early to 18% lately, median 13% — pricing power intact or improving.

  • Reinvestment, incremental ROIC returns capital
    What this means

    The capital base barely grew: this business returns cash through dividends and buybacks rather than reinvesting. Judge it on the cash returned, not on compounding.

  • Worst year 2022 · 0.3% op. margin
    What this means

    Stayed profitable even in its hardest year, the resilience that survives recessions.

  • Share count −0.3%/yr
    What this means

    Roughly flat share count, little dilution, little buyback.

  • Dividend record paid
    What this means

    Paid a dividend in 5 of the years on record.

Does AI threaten the moat?

Low contestability

The moat is physical, regulated or balance-sheet-funded, the kind AI cuts costs within but does not contest.

AI is unlikely to contest a moat that is physical, regulated or balance-sheet-funded; here it reads more as a cost tool than a threat.

Read from the filing's own risk factors, paired with the industry's structure under its SIC code; the durability is read above, the price below.

All figures as filed; the source filing is linked above.

Current Position

as of the latest quarter, Mar 31, 2026

Can the business pay what it owes this year, off the freshest balance sheet: the quality of the assets, the debt actually coming due, and what a low ratio means here.

Current assets$1.5B
  • Cash & short-term investments$355M
  • Receivables$494M
  • Inventory$507M
  • Other current assets$125M
Current liabilities$520M
  • Debt due within a year$47M
  • Accounts payable$211M
  • Other current liabilities$262M
Current ratio2.85×all current assets ÷ what's due · Graham looked for 2×
Quick ratio1.87×stricter: inventory excluded
Cash ratio0.68×strictest: cash alone against what's due
Working capital$962Mthe cushion left after near-term bills
Debt due this year vs. cash$47M due · $355M cash covered by cash on hand, no refinancing forced · both figures from the Mar 31, 2026 balance sheet
Revenue, latest quarter vs. a year ago+24.9%the freshest read on whether the business is still growing
Current ratio, recent quarters2.1× → 2.8×
Deeper floors
Tangible book value$83Mequity stripped of goodwill & intangibles
Net current asset value($471M)Graham's net-net: current assets less all liabilities
Debt incl. operating leases$1.3B$71M of it operating leases
Deferred revenue$59Mcustomer cash collected before delivery; operating float

From the company's latest filing.

How the cash was used, 2021–2025

Over the record, the business generated $501M of operating cash; how management split it reads as a cash returner, paying most of what it earns straight back to owners.

  • Reinvested$198M · 39%
  • Dividends$364M · 73%
  • Buybacks$300M · 60%
  • Returned to owners$664M

    219% of the owner earnings the business produced over the span, $364M as dividends and $300M as buybacks.

  • Source of funding−$360M

    Reinvestment and shareholder returns ran $360M beyond the operating cash the business generated, so the gap was financed off the balance sheet.

  • Average price paid for buybacks$103.37

    Across the years where the filing reports a share count, 3M shares were bought for $300M, about $103.37 each.

  • Net change in share count−0.8%

    The diluted count barely moved (59M to 59M): buybacks roughly offset the stock issued to staff.

  • Dividend record$0.90/sh

    Paid in 5 of the years on record, the per-share dividend shrinking about 15% a year. It was cut at least once along the way.

  • Return on what it retained29%

    Of the earnings it kept rather than paid out ($1.1B over the span), annual owner earnings (first three years vs last three) grew $315M, so each retained $1 added about 0.29 of yearly owner earnings. Buffett's test, run on owner earnings instead of market value.

Buybacks are gross of stock issued to staff; the share-count line above is the net of that, the figure that decides whether owners gained. The average price paid blends a year of purchases (and any accelerated repurchase), so it is close, not exact. The record of where the cash went and on what terms.

Acquisitions & goodwill

from the balance sheet & the 5-year cash-flow record

Goodwill grows only when a company acquires and falls only when it concedes it overpaid. The size of that bet, the cash put into buying rather than building, and how much has already been written off.

Goodwill & intangibles$833M22% of all assets; the premium carried on the balance sheet for businesses acquired
Against book equity33%goodwill is this share of book equity; the rest is the company’s own retained and paid-in capital
Cash spent acquiring$291Mover 5 years buying other businesses, against $198M of capital spent building

None written down over the record; the goodwill is still carried at full cost. That is the deals holding their value on the books so far; whether they keep doing so is the test an owner watches, since the write-down, when it comes, is the admission the price was too high.

Goodwill, acquired intangibles and equity from the latest balance sheet; acquisition spend and write-downs summed across the 5-year record, from the company's own filings.

Management, ownership & pay

read the proxy →

From the proxy: how much of the business the people running it own, and how they are paid, beside what the business earned for its owners in the same years.

Fiscal yearChief executivePay, as filed“Actually paid”Owner earnings
2023Mr. Mitchell$10.1M$33.5M$123M
2024Mr. Mitchell$9.6M$17.3M$221M
2025Mr. Mitchell$10.5M$14.6M$341M

Both pay figures are the company’s own, from the pay-versus-performance table its proxy statement files. “As filed” is the Summary Compensation Table total: salary, bonus, and equity awards at their value on the day of grant. “Actually paid” is the SEC’s prescribed recalculation, which re-marks those equity awards to what they became as they vested; it can swing far above or below the filed figure in either direction, and negative years occur. Owner earnings are the whole business's, from the record above, for the same fiscal years.

  • Insider ownership2.1%

    The stake all directors and executive officers hold together, per the 2026 proxy: skin in the game, the first thing Munger reads.

  • Stock-based compensation$27M

    The slice of the business handed to employees in shares this year, 1% of revenue, equal to 6% of operating profit. Buffett's oldest accounting fight: this is compensation, compensation is an expense, real whether or not the headline earnings admit it. One trap: the cash-flow statement adds SBC back, so the operating cash, and the owner earnings drawn from it, are flattered by exactly this amount; counted as the cost it is, what an owner keeps is lower.

Inverting the record

Invert: instead of why Crane is a good business, the question is what would make owning it a mistake, and whether those marks are in the record. Disconfirming tests across 2021–2025.

1 of the 3 tests turned up something to look into; the other 2 came back clean.

  • Look hereDid reported profit become cash?0.29×

    Across the record the business reported $1.8B of net income but generated $501M of operating cash, a 0.29-to-one conversion. Profit that does not turn into cash over many years is the classic mark of earnings that are softer than they look. Ask where the gap sits, receivables, inventory, or costs being capitalized rather than expensed.

And these came back clean
  • Is it less profitable than it was?
  • Did the share count rise anyway?

Each test is read from the filings and is noisy alone; a flag can mark a cyclical trough or a year of heavy investment as easily as a problem. The filing says which.

What an owner would ask, FY2025

read the 10-K →
  • Which reported numbers are a judgment call?
    Management names Revenue recognition, Pension & retirement, Income taxes, Contingencies as critical estimates

    each rests partly on management's judgment; the filing's note sets out the assumptionsverify →

The questions the record and the charts do not answer on their own; each carries the figure and the place to look.

Peers, Industrial Machinery

The same industry, side by side on owner economics. Each figure is a through-cycle median, so a peak or trough year can’t distort it; the group median at the foot is the line to read each against.

CompanyRevenueGross marginOp. marginROICOwner earn. margin
AXONAxon Enterprise$2.8B61%3.3%3%11%
GFFGriffon Corporation$2.5B28%6.3%6%3%
WTSWatts Water Technologies$2.4B42%12.8%15%10%
SSDSimpson Manufacturing$2.3B46%19.4%19%13%
CRCrane$2.3B40%13.4%14%7%
CXTCrane NXT Co.$1.7B40%14.4%14%11%
MWAMueller Water Products$1.4B33%12.6%11%8%
HLIOHelios Technologies Inc.$839M37%15.2%8%12%
Group median40%13.1%12%10%
IV

The price

What a price has to assume.

What the price implies

reverse-DCF

Type today's close and see the owner-earnings growth you'd have to believe to justify it, beside what Crane has delivered.

Crane’s latest year runs above its own through-cycle margin — the reported figure may flatter a peak. So the tool opens on the through-cycle base, Graham’s averaging cutting both ways; clear the toggle below to read the latest year exactly as reported.

$

Through the cycle, Crane earns about $167M on its 7.3% median owner-earnings margin. This year’s 14.8% margin runs above that; the reported figure may flatter a peak you'd be paying on. Normalize, below, values the price on that through-cycle figure rather than the latest year. It comes pre-checked here for that reason, the same rule that already normalizes a trough; clear it to price the year as filed.

Base

The assumptions

9.0% = the 4.55% 10-year Treasury (Jul 15, 2026) + 4.45 points of equity premium. The rate you require is yours to set.

Enter a price above to run it.

Implied by the price
Owner-earnings growth · since FY2023+67%/yr
Owner-earnings yield
P/E (3-yr earnings ’23–’25)
P/B
Graham’s price gate

Graham capped the multiple at 15×; Buffett and Munger let that rule go: a wonderful business can deserve 50× if the thesis holds. The gate marks the bargain-hunter's floor.

Against a high-grade bond: Graham’s yardstick bond yield%

Prefilled with the 10-year Treasury (4.55%, as of Jul 15, 2026). Edit it for today’s exact figure, or a AAA corporate yield.

Graham measured a stock against the bond you could own instead, the heart of his margin of safety. Enter a price above to weigh the owner-earnings yield against this bond.

Owner earnings $362M on 58M shares outstanding, per the 10-Q cover, as of 2026-04-28; net debt $884M. The base opens on the through-cycle figure (the latest year sits above the record’s own median, and Graham’s averaging cuts both ways); clear Normalize to use the year as filed. Net of stock comp treats option pay as the expense it is. The dials set the multiple a growth belief justifies; the price, and every dollar on this page, is yours.

Cite: Owner Scorecard, "Crane (CR), the owner's record," https://ownerscorecard.com/c/CR, data as of 2026-07-09.

Manual order: ← CQP its page in the Manual CRAI →

Industry order: ← CMI the Industrial Machinery chapter CXT →