Aristeia Capital L.L.C. Invests $558,000 in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

Aristeia Capital L.L.C. acquired a new position in shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor acquired 9,296 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $558,000.

Other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. 9258 Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Ball in the fourth quarter worth $210,000. UBS Group AG grew its holdings in shares of Ball by 69.7% in the 4th quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 592,488 shares of the company’s stock valued at $34,080,000 after acquiring an additional 243,404 shares in the last quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN grew its holdings in shares of Ball by 8.2% in the 4th quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN now owns 429,928 shares of the company’s stock valued at $24,729,000 after acquiring an additional 32,475 shares in the last quarter. Trexquant Investment LP acquired a new stake in shares of Ball in the fourth quarter valued at about $1,557,000. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. raised its holdings in Ball by 1.1% during the fourth quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 141,498 shares of the company’s stock worth $8,139,000 after acquiring an additional 1,527 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.51% of the company’s stock.

Ball Trading Up 1.4 %

Shares of BALL stock opened at $67.23 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.88, a current ratio of 1.18 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $63.83 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $65.16. Ball Co. has a 12-month low of $42.81 and a 12-month high of $71.32. The company has a market capitalization of $20.87 billion, a PE ratio of 5.06, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.64 and a beta of 0.88.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The company reported $0.74 EPS 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 business had revenue of $2.96 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.10 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.61 earnings per share. Ball’s revenue was down 3.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts predict that Ball Co. will post 3.12 earnings per share for the current year.

Ball Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 17th. Investors of record on Tuesday, September 3rd were paid a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.19%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, September 3rd. Ball’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 6.02%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

BALL has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Morgan Stanley raised Ball from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $69.00 to $78.00 in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th. Baird R W upgraded shares of Ball from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 14th. Citigroup cut 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. UBS Group boosted their price objective 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, Royal Bank of Canada dropped their target price 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. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $70.83.

About Ball

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.