Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. Purchases 5,745 Shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. raised its position in shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 8.2% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 75,660 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 5,745 shares during the period. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co.’s holdings in Ball were worth $4,542,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Federated Hermes Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Ball by 0.9% during the second quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 18,941 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,137,000 after purchasing an additional 162 shares in the last quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp lifted its holdings in Ball by 2.0% during the second quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 8,743 shares of the company’s stock worth $525,000 after buying an additional 174 shares during the period. State of Alaska Department of Revenue boosted its position in Ball by 0.5% during the 1st quarter. State of Alaska Department of Revenue now owns 34,206 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,304,000 after acquiring an additional 175 shares in the last quarter. Deseret Mutual Benefit Administrators increased its holdings in shares of Ball by 17.0% in the 2nd quarter. Deseret Mutual Benefit Administrators now owns 1,280 shares of the company’s stock valued at $77,000 after acquiring an additional 186 shares during the period. Finally, Greenleaf Trust raised its position in shares of Ball by 0.9% in the 1st quarter. Greenleaf Trust now owns 22,581 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,521,000 after acquiring an additional 193 shares in the last quarter. 86.51% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

BALL has been the topic of several analyst reports. Truist Financial reiterated 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 upgraded shares of Ball from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $69.00 to $78.00 in a research note on Wednesday, September 4th. Citigroup raised their target price on shares of Ball from $66.00 to $69.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Robert W. Baird raised Ball from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $70.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, August 14th. Finally, UBS Group raised their price objective on Ball from $56.00 to $59.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 6th. 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. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $71.08.

Ball Trading Down 1.7 %

Ball stock opened at $65.35 on Friday. Ball Co. has a 52 week low of $42.81 and a 52 week high of $71.32. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $64.63 and a 200 day moving average price of $65.26. 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 company has a market capitalization of $20.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 4.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 0.88.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 firm earned $0.61 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 3.5% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Ball Co. will post 3.12 EPS for the current year.

Ball Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 17th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 3rd were issued a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, September 3rd. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.22%. Ball’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 6.02%.

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.