9,260 Shares in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) Bought by Delaney Dennis R

Delaney Dennis R purchased a new position in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm purchased 9,260 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $624,000.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Sei Investments Co. boosted its stake in Ball by 4.5% in the third quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 389,374 shares of the company’s stock valued at $19,384,000 after buying an additional 16,632 shares in the last quarter. SkyView Investment Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Ball by 5.1% in the third quarter. SkyView Investment Advisors LLC now owns 6,874 shares of the company’s stock valued at $342,000 after buying an additional 333 shares in the last quarter. EP Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Ball during the third quarter valued at about $341,000. Deutsche Bank AG boosted its stake in shares of Ball by 3.8% during the third quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 834,013 shares of the company’s stock valued at $41,517,000 after purchasing an additional 30,859 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Neo Ivy Capital Management acquired a new stake in shares of Ball during the third quarter valued at about $390,000. Institutional investors own 86.51% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently commented on BALL. Barclays lifted their price target on Ball from $71.00 to $72.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, May 6th. Citigroup cut their price target on Ball from $73.00 to $66.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday. Robert W. Baird lifted their price target on Ball from $62.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, April 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on Ball from $59.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 1st. Finally, Morgan Stanley initiated coverage on Ball in a research note on Monday, March 18th. They issued an “equal weight” rating and a $68.00 price objective on the stock. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $69.23.

Ball Trading Up 2.0 %

BALL stock traded up $1.21 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $60.50. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 2,326,494 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,977,160. The company has a market cap of $18.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 4.55, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.65 and a beta of 0.85. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $65.83 and its 200 day moving average price is $63.39. The company has a current ratio of 1.21, a quick ratio of 0.93 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.75. Ball Co. has a 12 month low of $42.81 and a 12 month high of $71.32.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last issued its earnings results on Friday, April 26th. The company reported $0.68 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.56 by $0.12. The business had revenue of $2.87 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.23 billion. Ball had a return on equity of 21.79% and a net margin of 31.42%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 17.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.69 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts predict that Ball Co. will post 3.09 EPS for the current year.

Ball Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 3rd were issued a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 3rd. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.32%. Ball’s payout ratio is currently 6.02%.

Ball declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock buyback plan on Wednesday, April 24th that authorizes the company to buyback 40,000,000 outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the company to reacquire shares of its stock through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Pedro Henrique Mariani sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $69.90, for a total transaction of $349,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 9,844 shares in the company, valued at $688,095.60. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.81% of the company’s stock.

Ball 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.