Oakview Capital Management L.P. Sells 44,877 Shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

Oakview Capital Management L.P. trimmed its stake in shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 60.5% in the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 29,304 shares of the company’s stock after selling 44,877 shares during the period. Ball makes up about 5.5% of Oakview Capital Management L.P.’s holdings, making the stock its 9th largest holding. Oakview Capital Management L.P.’s holdings in Ball were worth $1,759,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of BALL. 9258 Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Ball in the 4th quarter worth about $210,000. Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Ball by 1.1% in the fourth quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 141,498 shares of the company’s stock valued at $8,139,000 after purchasing an additional 1,527 shares in the last quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. grew its position in shares of Ball by 7.5% in the fourth quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. now owns 52,891 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,042,000 after purchasing an additional 3,671 shares during the last quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH increased its stake in shares of Ball by 2.4% during the 4th quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 134,930 shares of the company’s stock worth $7,761,000 after purchasing an additional 3,219 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Treasurer of the State of North Carolina raised its position in shares of Ball by 1.0% during the 4th quarter. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina now owns 140,669 shares of the company’s stock worth $8,091,000 after purchasing an additional 1,350 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.51% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have commented on BALL shares. Baird R W upgraded Ball from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 14th. Robert W. Baird raised Ball from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $70.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, August 14th. Truist Financial reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $78.00 target price (up previously from $76.00) on shares of Ball in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Ball from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $69.00 to $78.00 in a research note on Wednesday, September 4th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on shares of Ball from $64.00 to $61.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, July 17th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $70.83.

Ball Stock Performance

Shares of BALL stock opened at $67.47 on Friday. 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 firm has a market capitalization of $20.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 5.08, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 0.88. Ball Co. has a one year low of $42.81 and a one year high of $71.32. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $64.25 and a 200 day moving average price of $65.21.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 1st. The company reported $0.74 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.70 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $2.96 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.10 billion. Ball had a return on equity of 19.45% and a net margin of 32.79%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 3.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.61 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Ball Co. will post 3.12 EPS for the current year.

Ball Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 17th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 3rd were issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.19%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, September 3rd. Ball’s payout ratio is currently 6.02%.

Ball Company 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.