Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) Holdings Decreased by Panagora Asset Management Inc.

Panagora Asset Management Inc. lessened its stake in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 56.2% in the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 13,602 shares of the company’s stock after selling 17,434 shares during the period. Panagora Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in Ball were worth $816,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of BALL. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank raised its holdings in Ball by 20.9% during the second quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 71,657 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,301,000 after purchasing an additional 12,393 shares in the last quarter. HB Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Ball by 12.3% in the 2nd quarter. HB Wealth Management LLC now owns 10,653 shares of the company’s stock worth $639,000 after buying an additional 1,168 shares in the last quarter. Railway Pension Investments Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of Ball in the second quarter valued at $11,896,000. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC boosted its stake in Ball by 1.7% during the second quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 15,578 shares of the company’s stock valued at $935,000 after buying an additional 253 shares in the last quarter. Finally, First Merchants Corp grew its holdings in Ball by 13.1% during the second quarter. First Merchants Corp now owns 47,330 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,841,000 after acquiring an additional 5,481 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.51% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have weighed in on BALL. Robert W. Baird raised shares of Ball from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $70.00 price target for the company in a report on Wednesday, August 14th. Barclays raised their target price on shares of Ball from $71.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, May 6th. Truist Financial reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $78.00 price target (up previously from $76.00) on shares of Ball in a report on Friday, August 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on Ball from $64.00 to $61.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, July 17th. Finally, UBS Group boosted their target price on Ball from $56.00 to $59.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 6th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating, five have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $69.08.

Ball Price Performance

NYSE BALL opened at $63.81 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 1.18 and a quick ratio of 0.88. The firm has a market capitalization of $19.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 4.80, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.61 and a beta of 0.85. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $62.18 and a 200-day simple moving average of $64.89. Ball Co. has a 52-week low of $42.81 and a 52-week high of $71.32.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last released its earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The company reported $0.74 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.70 by $0.04. Ball had a net margin of 32.79% and a return on equity of 19.45%. The company had revenue of $2.96 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.10 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.61 EPS. The company’s revenue was down 3.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts predict that Ball Co. will post 3.12 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ball Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 17th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 3rd will be paid a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 3rd. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.25%. Ball’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 6.02%.

About Ball

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.