Famed value investors Ruane, Cuniff and Goldfarb have acquired 8 Iakh shares of Cranes Software at an average price of Rs 88. The software company, which provides enterprise statistical analytics and engineering simulation software products and solutions, boasts a strong client list that includes such global majors as AT&T, Texas Instruments, Audi, Rolls Royce and GlaxoSmithKline. Crane registered a 26 per cent revenue growth to Rs 910 crore in the quarter ended June 30, 2008, as compared with Rs 710 crore in the corresponding period last year. Net profit was at Rs 351 crore in the quarter, a 33 per cent increase over the Rs 225 crore in the previous corresponding quarter. That margin is better than the 31 per cent profit growth in the corresponding quarter of last year, which indicates that the company has been able to negotiate currency blues and the economic slowdown so far. At the current market price of Rs 85, the stock trades at a reasonable ten times the trailing 12 months earnings.
