Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC Makes New Investment in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC bought a new position in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm bought 1,200 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $72,000.

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of BALL. Quest Partners LLC raised its holdings in Ball by 53,376.2% in the second quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 11,230 shares of the company’s stock valued at $674,000 after buying an additional 11,209 shares during the period. Oak Thistle LLC purchased a new position in Ball in the second quarter valued at approximately $308,000. Acadian Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in Ball in the second quarter valued at approximately $384,000. Savant Capital LLC raised its holdings in Ball by 2.3% in the second quarter. Savant Capital LLC now owns 14,563 shares of the company’s stock valued at $874,000 after buying an additional 326 shares during the period. Finally, Private Advisor Group LLC raised its holdings in Ball by 27.2% in the second quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 10,626 shares of the company’s stock valued at $638,000 after buying an additional 2,270 shares during the period. 86.51% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Ball Stock Performance

NYSE:BALL opened at $66.00 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $63.01 and a 200-day moving average price of $65.04. The company has a market cap of $20.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 4.97, a PEG ratio of 1.64 and a beta of 0.88. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a current ratio of 1.18. Ball Co. has a fifty-two week low of $42.81 and a fifty-two week high of $71.32.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last issued its quarterly 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. The company had revenue of $2.96 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.10 billion. Ball had a return on equity of 19.45% and a net margin of 32.79%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 3.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.61 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Ball Co. will post 3.12 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ball Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 17th. Investors of record on Tuesday, September 3rd will be issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, September 3rd. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.21%. Ball’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 6.02%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on BALL. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price objective on shares of Ball from $80.00 to $77.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Citigroup dropped their price target on shares of Ball from $73.00 to $66.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, July 8th. 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. UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of Ball from $56.00 to $59.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 6th. Finally, Baird R W upgraded shares of Ball from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 14th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Ball presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $70.83.

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.