Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc. Grows Stake in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc. increased its holdings in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 36.9% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,590 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 698 shares during the period. Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc.’s holdings in Ball were worth $155,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in BALL. Independence Bank of Kentucky purchased a new position in shares of Ball during the first quarter valued at about $47,000. Friedenthal Financial bought a new position in Ball during the second quarter valued at approximately $47,000. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC purchased a new position in Ball during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $72,000. Deseret Mutual Benefit Administrators increased its stake in Ball by 17.0% in the 2nd quarter. Deseret Mutual Benefit Administrators now owns 1,280 shares of the company’s stock worth $77,000 after acquiring an additional 186 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Homestead Advisers Corp raised its holdings in shares of Ball by 46.7% during the 4th quarter. Homestead Advisers Corp now owns 1,577 shares of the company’s stock worth $91,000 after acquiring an additional 502 shares in the last quarter. 86.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently weighed in on BALL. Royal Bank of Canada cut their target price on shares of Ball from $80.00 to $77.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, August 5th. Robert W. Baird upgraded shares of Ball from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $70.00 target price on the stock in a report on Wednesday, August 14th. Citigroup lowered their price target on shares of Ball from $73.00 to $66.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, July 8th. UBS Group lifted their price target on Ball from $56.00 to $59.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 6th. Finally, Baird R W upgraded Ball from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 14th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $70.83.

Ball Trading Up 0.9 %

BALL stock opened at $67.00 on Friday. Ball Co. has a 12 month low of $42.81 and a 12 month high of $71.32. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $64.02 and its 200 day moving average is $65.19. The company has a market capitalization of $20.34 billion, a PE ratio of 5.04, a P/E/G ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 0.88. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 1.18 and a quick ratio of 0.88.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last issued its earnings results 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.10 billion. Ball had a net margin of 32.79% and a return on equity of 19.45%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 3.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.61 earnings per share. On average, research analysts anticipate that Ball Co. will post 3.12 EPS for the current year.

Ball Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 17th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 3rd were issued 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 is 6.02%.

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.