Crane NXT (CXT) is down roughly 25% over the past year, due to the costs of buying several companies at once and slower sales in parts of its older hardware business. CXT shares closed at $48.42 on Sept. 23, well below its 52-week high of $69.
Then Jefferies stepped in. On Sept. 22, the firm launched coverage of Crane NXT with a Buy rating and a $60 price target, calling the company “underappreciated” by the market. Shares jumped 6.4% during the session to close at $48.68.
The call has made investors curious about whether Crane NXT has actually rebuilt itself into something bigger than most people realize.
What Jefferies sees in the Crane NXT stock
The analyst behind the call is Stephen Volkmann, who joined Jefferies in December 2008 and has covered industrial stocks for more than three decades. TipRanks rates him a 4.94-star analyst with a 67.63% success rate across 56 stocks, and his average return per rating is close to 19.6%. That track record gives his opinion real credibility.
Volkmann’s main point is that Crane NXT has grown far beyond the old currency printing business most investors still associate it with.
“Crane NXT combines a 150-yr legacy currency banknote printing franchise with proprietary authentication tech, advanced manufacturing capabilities, and growing exposure to higher-growth industrial & security markets,” he wrote in a note to clients, according to CNBC.
He also highlighted how difficult it would be for competitors to copy what Crane NXT does.
“CXT benefits from high barriers to entry that we think are underappreciated by investors,” Volkmann said.
His $60 target implies a 31% increase from Monday’s close of $45.77, Investing.com reported.
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Where Crane NXT actually makes its money
Crane NXT was separated from Crane Holdings in 2023 and now runs two main business lines. The first prints high-security banknotes for governments, including U.S. dollars, using tiny optical features that make bills extremely hard to counterfeit.
The second builds sensors and inspection systems that help food companies, drugmakers, and retailers verify that their products are genuine and safe.
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Over the past three years, the company’s management added to that mix through several large purchases. Crane NXT paid £300 million for De La Rue Authentication Solutions in May 2025, then combined it with OpSec Security.
Also, in April 2026, Crane NXT completed the purchase of Antares Vision, an Italian company that tracks products through supply chains for drugmakers and food and beverage brands.
Those deals roughly doubled the total market Crane NXT can sell into, from about $7 billion to roughly $13 billion. The company now has a path to grow in areas like drug tracking and digital brand protection, all of which are expanding as regulation and demand for product authenticity increase.
Recent results give the bull case some backup
The company’s 2026 second-quarter numbers offered real evidence that the strategy is working. Sales reached $493.2 million, up 22% from a year earlier, and adjusted earnings per share rose 13% to $1.10, beating Wall Street’s estimate of $1.04, according to The Globe and Mail.
CEO Aaron Saak, who has led the company since its 2023 separation, was positive about the performance.
“We had strong operational performance in Q2, delivering on our value creation priorities of accelerating growth, building on our leadership positions, and driving operational excellence,” Saak said, according to the SEC filing.
The company’s management then raised full-year adjusted earnings guidance to between $4.22 and $4.42 per share.
The broader financial picture is also what makes this stock appealing to value investors. Crane NXT turns nearly all of its profit into cash, and carries a 9% free cash flow yield at recent prices. It also trades at just 11.4 times next year’s expected earnings. That is much cheaper than most industrial technology companies of a similar size.
What investors should watch next
Jefferies is not the only bull on this stock. 5 of the 6 analysts covering Crane NXT rate it Buy, with an average price target of $66.5.
Still, the bull case comes with conditions. The Antares Vision deal closed only about 5 months ago, and Crane NXT’s management is still working to cut costs and combine operations. If that integration takes longer than expected, or if sales in the company’s payment hardware business continue to slow down, the stock could remain stuck in place for longer.
The next big test is on Nov. 4, when Crane NXT is expected to report 2026 third-quarter results. Investors will want to see that the company’s growing order book is turning into real revenue and that acquisition costs are reducing.
Further out, the 2027 Federal Reserve print order for new $100 banknotes could boost demand for Crane’s optical security features.
Jefferies believes the market has mispriced a company that has quietly rebuilt itself. The company’s financial profile also supports that view, but the payoff depends on how well its management executes over the next several quarters.
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