Short Interest in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) Expands By 6.4%

Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) was the target of a large increase in short interest in the month of October. As of October 15th, there was short interest totalling 6,130,000 shares, an increase of 6.4% from the September 30th total of 5,760,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 1,460,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 4.2 days. Currently, 2.0% of the company’s stock are short sold.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have commented on BALL shares. Robert W. Baird upgraded shares of Ball from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $70.00 price target for the company in a research note on Wednesday, August 14th. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their price objective on Ball from $77.00 to $75.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on Ball from $61.00 to $63.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 15th. Baird R W raised Ball from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 14th. Finally, Citigroup raised their price objective on Ball from $66.00 to $69.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $71.08.

Ball Stock Performance

Shares of BALL stock traded down $0.24 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $59.01. 1,865,386 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,803,630. The stock has a market capitalization of $17.91 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 4.47, a P/E/G ratio of 1.62 and a beta of 0.88. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $65.29 and a 200 day simple moving average of $65.05. The company has a current ratio of 1.18, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79. Ball has a 52-week low of $47.56 and a 52-week high of $71.32.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The company reported $0.91 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.87 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $3.08 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.13 billion. Ball had a return on equity of 19.45% and a net margin of 32.79%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down .9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.83 EPS. Research analysts predict that Ball will post 3.12 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ball Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 2nd will be issued a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.36%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 2nd. Ball’s payout ratio is 6.04%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ball

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Boston Partners increased its stake in Ball by 114.1% in the 1st quarter. Boston Partners now owns 4,057,645 shares of the company’s stock worth $273,347,000 after acquiring an additional 2,162,167 shares during the last quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company lifted its stake in Ball by 458.6% during the second quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 1,018,648 shares of the company’s stock worth $61,139,000 after purchasing an additional 836,293 shares during the last quarter. M&G Plc bought a new position in shares of Ball during the 1st quarter valued at about $50,193,000. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Ball by 0.8% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 35,855,312 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,415,214,000 after buying an additional 267,479 shares in the last quarter. Finally, AMI Asset Management Corp boosted its stake in Ball by 52.2% in the first quarter. AMI Asset Management Corp now owns 775,834 shares of the company’s stock worth $52,260,000 after buying an additional 266,114 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.51% of the company’s stock.

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.