Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) Shares Acquired by Quest Partners LLC

Quest Partners LLC boosted its position in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 3.8% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 11,662 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 432 shares during the quarter. Quest Partners LLC’s holdings in Ball were worth $792,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Ball by 37.7% in the 1st quarter. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC now owns 5,230 shares of the company’s stock valued at $352,000 after purchasing an additional 1,431 shares during the period. Bessemer Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Ball by 16.8% in the first quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 3,734 shares of the company’s stock valued at $251,000 after acquiring an additional 538 shares during the period. Lake Street Advisors Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Ball during the first quarter worth approximately $270,000. Pitcairn Co. acquired a new position in shares of Ball in the 1st quarter valued at $222,000. Finally, CreativeOne Wealth LLC raised its position in Ball by 3.9% in the 1st quarter. CreativeOne Wealth LLC now owns 6,170 shares of the company’s stock valued at $415,000 after purchasing an additional 230 shares during the last quarter. 86.51% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently commented on BALL. Mizuho reduced their target price on shares of Ball from $69.00 to $67.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, November 4th. Morgan Stanley upgraded Ball from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $69.00 to $78.00 in a research note on Wednesday, September 4th. UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of Ball from $56.00 to $59.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 6th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $75.00 price objective on shares of Ball in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Finally, Baird R W raised shares of Ball from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 14th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $70.75.

Ball Trading Up 0.8 %

NYSE:BALL opened at $60.92 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $18.18 billion, a PE ratio of 4.59, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.50 and a beta of 0.90. Ball Co. has a 52-week low of $53.23 and a 52-week high of $71.32. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $64.16 and a 200-day simple moving average of $64.42. The company has a quick ratio of 0.82, a current ratio of 1.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The company reported $0.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.87 by $0.04. Ball had a net margin of 34.05% and a return on equity of 17.46%. The company had revenue of $3.08 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.13 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.83 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down .9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts expect that Ball Co. will post 3.15 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ball Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Investors of record on Monday, December 2nd will be paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.31%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 2nd. Ball’s payout ratio is currently 6.03%.

Ball Company Profile

Ball Corporation supplies aluminum packaging products for the beverage, personal care, and household products industries in the United States, Brazil, and internationally. The company manufactures and sells aluminum beverage containers to fillers of carbonated soft drinks, beer, energy drinks, and other beverages.