Broderick Brian C Grows Stake in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

Broderick Brian C boosted its stake in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 37.7% during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 70,219 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 19,220 shares during the quarter. Broderick Brian C’s holdings in Ball were worth $4,769,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. QRG Capital Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Ball by 306.6% during the second quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 31,750 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,906,000 after buying an additional 23,941 shares in the last quarter. Addenda Capital Inc. grew its stake in Ball by 7.3% during the 2nd quarter. Addenda Capital Inc. now owns 153,464 shares of the company’s stock valued at $9,211,000 after acquiring an additional 10,427 shares in the last quarter. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd raised its holdings in Ball by 436.8% in the 1st quarter. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd now owns 18,010 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,213,000 after acquiring an additional 14,655 shares during the last quarter. M&G Plc purchased a new position in Ball in the 1st quarter worth approximately $50,193,000. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Ball by 0.8% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 35,855,312 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,415,214,000 after purchasing an additional 267,479 shares in the last quarter. 86.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Robert W. Baird upgraded Ball from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $70.00 price target for the company in a research report on Wednesday, August 14th. UBS Group raised their target price on Ball from $56.00 to $59.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 6th. Citigroup lifted their price target on Ball from $66.00 to $69.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on shares of Ball from $63.00 to $61.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Truist Financial reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $78.00 target price (up from $76.00) on shares of Ball in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Ball presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $70.75.

Ball Price Performance

Ball stock opened at $61.94 on Friday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $64.58 and its 200-day simple moving average is $64.71. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a current ratio of 1.09. Ball Co. has a 1 year low of $51.15 and a 1 year high of $71.32. The company has a market capitalization of $18.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 4.67, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 0.90.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last announced its 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. Ball had a return on equity of 17.46% and a net margin of 34.05%. The company had revenue of $3.08 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.13 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.83 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down .9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Ball Co. will post 3.15 earnings per share for the current year.

Ball Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Investors of record on Monday, December 2nd will be paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.29%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 2nd. 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.