Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) Shares Bought by Principal Financial Group Inc.

Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 1.1% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 364,856 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 3,967 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned approximately 0.12% of Ball worth $24,777,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company grew its holdings 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 acquiring an additional 836,293 shares during the period. FMR LLC grew its stake in shares of Ball by 15.4% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 4,418,570 shares of the company’s stock worth $300,065,000 after purchasing an additional 588,282 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Ball by 4.7% during the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 6,954,876 shares of the company’s stock valued at $453,144,000 after purchasing an additional 309,587 shares in the last quarter. WINTON GROUP Ltd lifted its stake in shares of Ball by 1,875.2% in the 2nd quarter. WINTON GROUP Ltd now owns 275,238 shares of the company’s stock valued at $16,520,000 after purchasing an additional 261,303 shares during the period. Finally, KBC Group NV boosted its holdings in Ball by 402.1% during the third quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 265,261 shares of the company’s stock worth $18,014,000 after buying an additional 212,430 shares in 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 research analysts have weighed in on BALL shares. Mizuho raised shares of Ball from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $67.00 price objective for the company in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. Morgan Stanley raised Ball from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $69.00 to $78.00 in a report on Wednesday, September 4th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $75.00 price objective on shares of Ball in a report on Monday, November 4th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their target price on Ball from $63.00 to $61.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Citigroup lifted their price target on shares of Ball from $66.00 to $69.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $70.75.

Ball Stock Up 0.8 %

Shares of NYSE BALL opened at $56.16 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $16.76 billion, a PE ratio of 4.24, a P/E/G ratio of 1.44 and a beta of 0.91. The company has a current ratio of 1.09, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79. Ball Co. has a 12-month low of $54.06 and a 12-month high of $71.32. The company has a 50-day moving average of $60.64 and a 200 day moving average of $62.64.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The company reported $0.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.87 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $3.08 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.13 billion. Ball had a return on equity of 17.46% and a net margin of 34.05%. The business’s revenue was down .9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.83 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Ball Co. will post 3.15 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ball Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 2nd were given a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 2nd. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.42%. Ball’s payout ratio is 6.03%.

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.