D.A. Davidson & CO. Raises Stock Position in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

D.A. Davidson & CO. raised its holdings in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 55.7% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 8,328 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,978 shares during the quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO.’s holdings in Ball were worth $566,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Tidal Investments LLC grew its holdings in Ball by 57.1% during the first quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 9,932 shares of the company’s stock worth $669,000 after acquiring an additional 3,610 shares during the period. Cetera Investment Advisers increased its holdings in shares of Ball by 307.0% during the 1st quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 93,708 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,312,000 after purchasing an additional 70,685 shares in the last quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Ball by 48.1% during the first quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC now owns 21,561 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,452,000 after buying an additional 7,007 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its position in Ball by 38.2% during the second quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,508 shares of the company’s stock valued at $211,000 after buying an additional 969 shares during the period. Finally, DNB Asset Management AS increased its holdings in Ball by 2.5% in the second quarter. DNB Asset Management AS now owns 55,466 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,329,000 after buying an additional 1,378 shares in the last quarter. 86.51% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

BALL has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $75.00 target price on shares of Ball in a research note on Monday, November 4th. Citigroup upped their target price on Ball from $66.00 to $69.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on shares of Ball from $63.00 to $61.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Ball from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $69.00 to $78.00 in a research note on Wednesday, September 4th. Finally, Robert W. Baird upgraded Ball from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $70.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Wednesday, August 14th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Ball currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $70.75.

Ball Trading Up 1.4 %

Shares of BALL opened at $62.83 on Tuesday. Ball Co. has a 12-month low of $54.06 and a 12-month high of $71.32. The firm has a market capitalization of $18.75 billion, a P/E ratio of 4.74, a P/E/G ratio of 1.55 and a beta of 0.90. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $63.64 and a 200 day moving average price of $64.04. The company has a current ratio of 1.09, a quick ratio of 0.82 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, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.87 by $0.04. Ball had a net margin of 34.05% and a return on equity of 17.46%. The business had revenue of $3.08 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.13 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.83 EPS. The business’s revenue was down .9% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts forecast that Ball Co. will post 3.15 EPS for the current year.

Ball Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 2nd will be given a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 2nd. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.27%. Ball’s dividend payout ratio is currently 6.03%.

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.