CCK: Crown Holdings a Jewel

This article is a reprint of my 7 August 2008 RealMoney column.

Crown Holdings CCK - Annual Report) looks to me like the type of boring stock Peter Lynch would love. The company’s primary products include steel and aluminum cans for food, beverage, household and other consumer products and metal caps and closures.

Cans and bottle caps certainly don’t sound particularly glamorous. A glance at the recent producer price index report, however, shows that this industry has been steadily gaining pricing power over the last several years. <info_table> </info_table>

Year/Year Change in PPI Index for Fruit and Vegetable Canning Industry

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Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics

You may be surprised by how much innovation actually occurs in the business. The company highlights its research and development activities, including the SuperEnd be