Crane Holdings, Co. (CR): History, Ownership, Mission, How It Works & Makes Money

Do you really know how a 170-year-old industrial powerhouse like Crane Company (CR) continues to thrive, especially after its major 2023 corporate separation?

This isn't just an old-line manufacturer; it's a focused entity projecting between $2.23 billion and $2.27 billion in 2025 revenue and an adjusted Earnings Per Share (EPS) between $5.30 and $5.60, driven by its mission-critical components for aerospace and defense, plus its Process Flow Technologies segment.

We'll defintely simplify the complex ownership structure, trace its founding in 1855, and map out precisely how this $11.01 billion market cap company makes its money today, so you can make a truly informed investment decision.

Crane Holdings, Co. (CR) History

You're looking at Crane Company (CR), a diversified industrial manufacturer with a history stretching back over 170 years. The company you see today, trading under the ticker CR, is the result of a major corporate separation in 2023. It's a focused entity, but its roots are in the American industrial revolution, building an empire from a small brass foundry.

The core of Crane Company has always been engineering excellence and a pragmatic, long-term view. Honestly, that's how a business started with just a few hundred dollars survives for this long.

Given Company's Founding Timeline

Year established

The company was originally established in 1855 by Richard Teller Crane.

Original location

The business, initially named R.T. Crane & Bro., was founded in Chicago, Illinois, to manufacture and sell brass goods and plumbing supplies.

Founding team members

The founder was Richard Teller Crane (R.T. Crane), who was soon joined by his brother, Charles Crane, to form the initial partnership.

Initial capital/funding

Richard Teller Crane started the business with a modest capital of just $700, which he had saved from his work as a brass founder.

Given Company's Evolution Milestones

Given Company's Transformative Moments

The company's trajectory wasn't a straight line; it was a series of deliberate, sometimes painful, portfolio shifts. The most significant move was the transition from a single-product manufacturer to a global, diversified conglomerate, and then the final, sharp focus of the 2023 separation.

The decision to diversify in the mid-20th century, moving into aerospace, fluid handling, and engineered materials, was a huge risk that paid off. It allowed the company to mitigate the cyclical nature of its original plumbing and valve markets.

• Strategic Diversification (1960s-1990s): The shift from being primarily a valve and fitting supplier to an industrial conglomerate was pivotal. This strategy, led by the Evans family, saw the company's market capitalization increase from under $200 million in 1984 to approximately $1.8 billion by 2001.
• The 2023 Spin-Off: This was the most defintely transformative event in modern history. On April 3, 2023, the former Crane Holdings, Co. completed a tax-free distribution of its industrial businesses to shareholders. The spun-off entity, which retained the ticker CR and was named Crane Company, became a pure-play industrial technology firm focused on Aerospace & Electronics, Process Flow Technologies, and Engineered Materials.
• Post-Spin Financial Focus: The separation was designed to unlock value by allowing each new company to pursue distinct growth strategies and capital allocation. For the newly focused Crane Company (CR), this means concentrating on highly engineered products with secular tailwinds, like the aftermarket strength in Aerospace & Electronics. The company's full-year 2025 revenue guidance is approximately $2.3 billion, with an adjusted segment operating margin expected to be 22.5%+.

The current Crane Company (CR) is now a leaner, higher-margin business, evidenced by its market capitalization of around $11.00 billion as of late 2025. You can get a deeper dive into the numbers here: Breaking Down Crane Holdings, Co. (CR) Financial Health: Key Insights for Investors.

Crane Holdings, Co. (CR) Ownership Structure

The ownership of Crane Company (CR) is heavily concentrated among institutional investors, which hold the vast majority of shares and thus exert significant influence over corporate governance and strategic decisions. This structure, where institutions own over three-quarters of the company, means major investment firms like BlackRock and The Vanguard Group are the primary stakeholders you need to defintely watch.

Given Company's Current Status

Crane Company operates as an independent, publicly traded entity on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the ticker symbol CR. This public status was established on April 4, 2023, following the tax-free separation from the former Crane Holdings, Co., which was subsequently renamed Crane NXT, Co. (CXT). The company has positioned itself as a focused manufacturer of highly engineered products for the Aerospace, Defense, Space, and Process Flow industries, generating approximately $2 billion in annual revenue.

Given Company's Ownership Breakdown

As of late 2024 and through 2025 reporting, institutional investors control the largest block of Crane Company's common stock, a common characteristic of large-cap public companies. This means board decisions and capital allocation strategies are strongly influenced by a handful of major asset managers. The general public and individual insiders hold smaller, but still meaningful, stakes. If you want to dive deeper into who is buying and why, you should check out Exploring Crane Holdings, Co. (CR) Investor Profile: Who's Buying and Why?

Given Company's Leadership

The executive leadership team for Crane Company is a mix of seasoned veterans from the original Crane Holdings, Co. and new talent, all focused on the post-separation strategy of accelerating growth in the Aerospace, Defense, and Process Flow markets. Max Mitchell, who has been with the company since 2004, leads the charge. This team is tasked with executing the strategy that yielded a strong financial profile, with the company beating quarterly estimates with an EPS of $1.64 on revenue of $589.2 million in the most recent quarter.

• Max H. Mitchell: Chairman of the Board, President & Chief Executive Officer. He took on the Chairman role in April 2024.
• Richard A. Maue: Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer. He was part of the leadership steering the separation.
• Alejandro Alcala: Executive Vice President, Chief Operating Officer. This is the person who drives day-to-day operational excellence.
• Tami Polmanteer: Executive Vice President, Chief Human Resources Officer.
• Marijane Papanikolaou: Vice President, Controller & Chief Accounting Officer.

Crane Holdings, Co. (CR) Mission and Values

Crane Holdings, Co.'s purpose extends far beyond its strong financial performance, grounding itself in a timeless resolution from 1855 that prioritizes strict honesty and fairness in every business dealing. This foundational integrity is paired with a modern vision focused on market leadership, driving both superior returns and a commitment to corporate citizenship.

Honestly, a company's cultural DNA-its mission and values-tells you more about its long-term resilience than any single quarter's earnings report. Crane Holdings, Co. has maintained this core ethos for over 170 years, and it defintely shows in their disciplined, yet innovative, approach to their highly engineered products.

Crane Holdings, Co.'s Core Purpose

The company's core purpose is a blend of its historical commitment to ethical business practices and a contemporary focus on operational excellence across its critical technology platforms.

Official Mission Statement

The mission of Crane Holdings, Co. is directly drawn from the R.T. Crane Resolution of 1855, a clear and actionable mandate for all associates. It's a simple, powerful guide for how they operate.

• Conduct business with the strictest honesty and fairness.
• Avoid all deception and trickery.
• Deal fairly with both customers and competitors.
• Be liberal and just toward employees.
• Put my whole mind upon the business.

This commitment is a key differentiator, influencing decisions that led to a full-year 2025 Adjusted EPS guidance range of $5.75 to $5.95, demonstrating that integrity and performance aren't mutually exclusive.

Vision Statement

The company's vision is to achieve market leadership and deliver superior returns by leveraging its two strategic growth platforms: Aerospace & Electronics and Process Flow Technologies. The focus is simple: be the best in their specialized, mission-critical markets.

• Achieve market leadership through innovation and operational excellence.
• Deliver superior returns for shareholders.
• Focus on highly engineered components for challenging, mission-critical applications.

This vision is supported by tangible growth, as seen in the raised full-year 2025 revenue growth outlook of approximately 7.5%. That's a clear map for where the company is headed. For a deeper dive into these principles, you can check out Mission Statement, Vision, & Core Values of Crane Holdings, Co. (CR).

Crane Holdings, Co. Slogan/Tagline

While the company does not use a single external marketing slogan, its internal call to action and core values define its operating culture and drive its over 7,300 global associates. It's about empowering employees to take calculated risks and deliver innovative solutions.

• Think Big, Be Bold, Act Fast (Internal Call to Action).
• Engineering Excellence (Core Value).
• Equality, Honesty, and Fairness (Founding Principles).

This culture of continuous improvement and engineering focus helped the company report strong Q3 2025 sales of $589.2 million, plus a core backlog growth of 16.4% year-over-year. The principles work.

Crane Holdings, Co. (CR) How It Works

Crane Company operates as a focused industrial technology manufacturer, delivering highly engineered components and systems for mission-critical applications in two primary segments: aerospace/defense and process industries. The company generates value by applying proprietary technology and operational excellence to solve complex fluid handling and electronic challenges for its global customers, targeting full-year 2025 total sales growth of approximately 7.5%.

Crane Company's Product/Service Portfolio

The company is structured around two strategic growth platforms that provide specialized products for demanding environments, moving away from its former, broader conglomerate model following the divestiture of its Engineered Materials business in early 2025.

Crane Company's Operational Framework

Crane Company drives value creation through a disciplined operating system focused on commercial excellence, productivity, and strategic capital allocation. This framework has helped expand the adjusted segment operating margin to an expected 22.5%+ for the full year 2025.

• Backlog-Driven Visibility: A significant portion of future revenue is secured by a robust backlog, particularly in the Aerospace & Electronics segment, which reported a backlog of $1,052.8 million as of June 30, 2025.
• Aftermarket Focus: A high-margin revenue stream is generated through the aftermarket (spare parts, maintenance, repair, and overhaul) in A&E, which saw sales growth of 20.4% in Q1 2025.
• Acquisition Strategy: Growth is accelerated by strategic, bolt-on acquisitions like CryoWorks and Technifab, which contribute to the total sales growth and expand the product portfolio in niche, high-growth areas.
• Operational Discipline: Continuous focus on productivity and favorable net price realization (price net of inflation) consistently drives margin expansion across both segments.

Here's the quick math: the company's trailing twelve months (TTM) revenue as of Q3 2025 was $2.27 billion, reflecting the scale of these operations. For a deeper dive into the numbers, check out Breaking Down Crane Holdings, Co. (CR) Financial Health: Key Insights for Investors.

Crane Company's Strategic Advantages

The company maintains market success by leveraging a few critical advantages that are defintely hard for competitors to replicate, especially in highly regulated sectors like aerospace and defense.

• Differentiated Technology: Crane Company's proprietary and highly engineered products are designed for extreme and mission-critical applications, creating high barriers to entry for competitors.
• Strong Customer Relationships: Long-standing relationships with key players in commercial aerospace, military, and defense markets provide stable, recurring revenue, particularly from aftermarket sales.
• Financial Resilience: A robust balance sheet, indicated by a low debt-to-equity ratio of just 0.03 as of October 2025, allows for disciplined M&A and investment in new technologies without significant financial strain.
• Segment Focus: The strategic separation and focus on two core industrial technology segments-A&E and PFT-allows for concentrated investment and expertise, leading to market outgrowth.

What this estimate hides is the potential for supply chain disruptions, still a near-term risk, but the strong core backlog growth of 16.4% in Q3 2025 suggests demand is outpacing production challenges.

Crane Holdings, Co. (CR) How It Makes Money

Crane Holdings, Co. generates revenue by manufacturing and selling highly engineered industrial products, primarily through two distinct, technology-focused segments: Aerospace & Electronics and Process Flow Technologies. The company's financial strength comes from its disciplined operating model, which focuses on strong net pricing and converting a substantial backlog of orders into high-margin sales.

Crane Holdings, Co.'s Revenue Breakdown

You need to see where the money is actually coming from, so here is the breakdown based on the most recent financial data, specifically the third quarter of the 2025 fiscal year. This shows a clear tilt toward the industrial side, but the aerospace segment is driving the core growth.

Business Economics

The core of Crane Holdings, Co.'s business model is selling proprietary, mission-critical components, which allows for premium pricing power (net price) over raw material cost inflation. The Process Flow Technologies segment, which makes engineered valves and pumps, saw sales of $319.0 million in Q3 2025, but its core performance was flat, indicating a stable but mature market where acquisitions are key for growth.

• Aerospace & Electronics Margin: This segment is the profit engine, with an adjusted operating margin of 25.1% in Q3 2025, expanding by 160 basis points (bps) year-over-year.
• Aftermarket Leverage: A significant portion of the Aerospace & Electronics revenue comes from high-margin aftermarket sales, which grew 20% in Q3 2025, providing a predictable, recurring revenue stream.
• Pricing Power: Continued strong net price realization, plus operational productivity, drove a 19% increase in adjusted operating profit for the quarter.
• Acquisition Strategy: Crane is actively using its strong balance sheet to execute strategic acquisitions, like the pending purchase of Precision Sensors & Instrumentation, which is set to close by the end of 2025, to expand its high-margin Aerospace & Electronics portfolio.

The Process Flow business is a defintely a cash cow, but Aerospace is the growth story.

Crane Holdings, Co.'s Financial Performance

The company is on track for a strong 2025, having raised its full-year guidance after Q3 results. Management is projecting total sales growth of approximately 7.5% for the full fiscal year 2025.

• Full-Year Revenue and EPS: The full-year 2025 revenue is estimated to be around $2.29 billion, with an adjusted Earnings Per Share (EPS) guidance raised and narrowed to a range of $5.75 to $5.95. This reflects a robust 20% year-over-year adjusted EPS growth at the midpoint.
• Profitability: The company boasts a strong 3-year average Gross Margin of 42.62% and a Net Margin of 16.6%, demonstrating excellent cost control and pricing leverage. The full-year adjusted segment operating margin is expected to be 22.5%+.
• Balance Sheet Health: Crane maintains a very strong financial position, evidenced by a high current ratio of 2.93 and an exceptionally low debt-to-equity ratio of just 0.03. This strong balance sheet provides substantial financial flexibility for further strategic moves and shareholder returns.
• Backlog Visibility: The total core backlog grew 16.4% year-over-year as of Q3 2025, driven mainly by the Aerospace & Electronics segment's backlog exceeding $1.05 billion, which gives clear revenue visibility well into 2026.

To understand the investor sentiment and ownership structure driving this performance, you should read Exploring Crane Holdings, Co. (CR) Investor Profile: Who's Buying and Why?

Crane Holdings, Co. (CR) Market Position & Future Outlook

Crane Holdings, Co. has successfully repositioned itself as a focused, high-margin industrial technology firm, with its 2025 outlook projecting strong growth driven by its core Aerospace & Electronics segment. The company is guiding for full-year adjusted earnings per share (EPS) in the range of $5.75 to $5.95, representing a robust 20% growth at the midpoint over 2024, with total sales growth expected to be approximately 7.5%. The strategy is simple: focus on mission-critical, proprietary technology where they have a clear competitive edge, and it's working.

Competitive Landscape

In the Process Flow Technologies segment, Crane Holdings, Co. competes against massive global industrial players. The table below visualizes their standing in the highly fragmented global industrial valves market, which is a core component of the Process Flow segment and is valued at approximately $86.67 billion in 2025.

Opportunities & Challenges

You need to map the near-term landscape to make smart capital decisions, so here's the quick view of what's on the horizon. Crane Holdings, Co.'s ability to execute on its M&A pipeline and manage supply chain volatility will defintely be key to hitting its 2025 targets.

Industry Position

Crane Holdings, Co. is not the largest player in the industrial space, but it holds a strong, defensible position as a 'principal competitor' by focusing on highly engineered, mission-critical products rather than high-volume commodity components. The company's strategic divestiture of Engineered Materials in January 2025 has sharpened this focus, leaving it with two high-potential platforms.

• Maintain a high adjusted segment operating margin of over 22.5%, reflecting pricing power and operational discipline.
• Aerospace & Electronics is the primary growth engine, leveraging a 16.4% core backlog growth as of Q3 2025.
• The balance sheet is robust, with a cash balance of $435.1 million and total debt of $247.1 million as of March 31, 2025, giving them flexibility for further accretive acquisitions.

The core advantage lies in its technological differentiation (proprietary and differentiated technology) which allows it to secure sole-sourced content on key aerospace and defense platforms. To get a deeper dive into the numbers that support this trajectory, you should check out Breaking Down Crane Holdings, Co. (CR) Financial Health: Key Insights for Investors.