Commonwealth Equity Services LLC Lowers Holdings in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

Commonwealth Equity Services LLC lessened its stake in shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 75.7% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 34,371 shares of the company’s stock after selling 106,984 shares during the quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC’s holdings in Ball were worth $2,063,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Mirova US LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Ball by 0.5% in the 2nd quarter. Mirova US LLC now owns 2,495,497 shares of the company’s stock valued at $149,780,000 after acquiring an additional 13,320 shares during the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd lifted its position in shares of Ball by 10.7% during the 2nd quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd now owns 42,934 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,577,000 after buying an additional 4,146 shares in the last quarter. iA Global Asset Management Inc. acquired a new stake in Ball in the 2nd quarter valued at $638,000. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. increased its holdings in Ball by 5.7% in the 2nd quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. now owns 19,723 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,184,000 after acquiring an additional 1,066 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank raised its position 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 acquiring an additional 12,393 shares during the period. 86.51% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

BALL has been the topic of several research analyst reports. UBS Group lifted their target price 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. Citigroup dropped their target price on shares of Ball from $73.00 to $66.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, July 8th. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price target on shares of Ball from $80.00 to $77.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Robert W. Baird raised shares of Ball from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $70.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Wednesday, August 14th. Finally, Truist Financial reissued a “buy” rating and set a $78.00 price target (up previously from $76.00) on shares of Ball in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $69.85.

Ball Trading Up 0.8 %

Shares of BALL stock opened at $65.64 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $20.37 billion, a P/E ratio of 4.94, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.62 and a beta of 0.88. Ball Co. has a fifty-two week low of $42.81 and a fifty-two week high of $71.32. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a current ratio of 1.18. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $62.88 and a 200 day moving average price of $65.00.

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

Ball Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 17th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 3rd will be issued a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, September 3rd. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.22%. Ball’s payout ratio is currently 6.02%.

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.