Driehaus Capital Management LLC Lowers Stake in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

Driehaus Capital Management LLC lowered its stake in shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 13.4% during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 6,512 shares of the company’s stock after selling 1,007 shares during the period. Driehaus Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Ball were worth $391,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company raised its position in Ball by 458.6% in the 2nd 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 period. MBB Public Markets I LLC purchased a new position in Ball in the 2nd quarter worth $1,381,000. Dark Forest Capital Management LP raised its position in Ball by 43.9% in the 2nd quarter. Dark Forest Capital Management LP now owns 9,886 shares of the company’s stock worth $593,000 after purchasing an additional 3,016 shares during the period. APG Asset Management N.V. raised its position in Ball by 446.2% in the 2nd quarter. APG Asset Management N.V. now owns 76,752 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,298,000 after purchasing an additional 62,700 shares during the period. Finally, Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. purchased a new position in Ball in the 2nd quarter worth $1,055,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.51% of the company’s stock.

Ball Trading Up 0.7 %

NYSE:BALL opened at $67.91 on Tuesday. Ball Co. has a one year low of $42.81 and a one year high of $71.32. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 1.18 and a quick ratio of 0.88. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $64.38 and its 200 day simple moving average is $65.23. The firm has a market capitalization of $21.08 billion, a P/E ratio of 5.11, a PEG ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 0.88.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 1st. The company reported $0.74 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 business had revenue of $2.96 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.10 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.61 earnings per share. Ball’s quarterly revenue was down 3.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that Ball Co. will post 3.12 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ball Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 17th. Investors of record on Tuesday, September 3rd were paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.18%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, September 3rd. Ball’s payout ratio is currently 6.02%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently commented on BALL. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Ball from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $69.00 to $78.00 in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th. Truist Financial reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $78.00 price target (up previously from $76.00) on shares of Ball in a report on Friday, August 2nd. UBS Group raised their price target on shares of Ball from $56.00 to $59.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 6th. Royal Bank of Canada cut their price target on shares of Ball from $80.00 to $77.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, August 5th. Finally, Robert W. Baird raised shares of Ball from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $70.00 price target on the stock in a report on Wednesday, August 14th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $70.83.

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.