Crown Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:CCK) saw a significant share price rise of 20% in the past couple of months on the NYSE. The recent share price gains has brought the company back closer to its yearly peak. As a large-cap stock with high coverage by analysts, you could assume any recent changes in the company's outlook is already priced into the stock. But what if there is still an opportunity to buy? Let's take a look at Crown Holdings's outlook and value based on the most recent financial data to see if the opportunity still exists.

What's The Opportunity In Crown Holdings?

According to our price multiple model, which makes a comparison between the company's price-to-earnings ratio and the industry average, the stock price seems to be justfied. In this instance, we've used the price-to-earnings (PE) ratio given that there is not enough information to reliably forecast the stock's cash flows. We find that Crown Holdings's ratio of 23.78x is trading slightly below its industry peers' ratio of 23.78x, which means if you buy Crown Holdings today, you'd be paying a reasonable price for it. And if you believe that Crown Holdings should be trading at this level in the long run, then there's not much of an upside to gain over and above other industry peers. Furthermore, Crown Holdings's share price also seems relatively stable compared to the rest of the market, as indicated by its low beta. This may mean it is less likely for the stock to fall lower from natural market volatility, which suggests less opportunities to buy moving forward.

What does the future of Crown Holdings look like?

Investors looking for growth in their portfolio may want to consider the prospects of a company before buying its shares. Although value investors would argue that it's the intrinsic value relative to the price that matter the most, a more compelling investment thesis would be high growth potential at a cheap price. With profit expected to grow by 89% over the next couple of years, the future seems bright for Crown Holdings. It looks like higher cash flow is on the cards for the stock, which should feed into a higher share valuation.

What This Means For You

Are you a shareholder? It seems like the market has already priced in CCK's positive outlook, with shares trading around industry price multiples. However, there are also other important factors which we haven't considered today, such as the financial strength of the company. Have these factors changed since the last time you looked at CCK? Will you have enough confidence to invest in the company should the price drop below the industry PE ratio?

Are you a potential investor? If you've been keeping tabs on CCK, now may not be the most advantageous time to buy, given it is trading around industry price multiples. However, the optimistic forecast is encouraging for CCK, which means it's worth diving deeper into other factors such as the strength of its balance sheet, in order to take advantage of the next price drop.

Keep in mind, when it comes to analysing a stock it's worth noting the risks involved. While conducting our analysis, we found that Crown Holdings has 2 warning signs and it would be unwise to ignore them.

If you are no longer interested in Crown Holdings, you can use our free platform to see our list of over 50 other stocks with a high growth potential.

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This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.