Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) Shares Sold by Burney Co.

Burney Co. decreased its holdings in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 1.2% in the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 36,139 shares of the company’s stock after selling 457 shares during the quarter. Burney Co.’s holdings in Ball were worth $2,169,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Ball during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $168,372,000. Boston Partners raised its stake in Ball by 114.1% in the 1st quarter. Boston Partners now owns 4,057,645 shares of the company’s stock worth $273,347,000 after acquiring an additional 2,162,167 shares during the last quarter. Putnam Investments LLC lifted its position in Ball by 39.5% during the 4th quarter. Putnam Investments LLC now owns 5,815,825 shares of the company’s stock worth $334,526,000 after acquiring an additional 1,645,909 shares during the period. Parnassus Investments LLC grew its stake in Ball by 5.0% during the 4th quarter. Parnassus Investments LLC now owns 21,062,707 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,211,527,000 after purchasing an additional 998,527 shares during the last quarter. Finally, M&G Plc acquired a new position in shares of Ball in the first quarter valued at about $50,193,000. 86.51% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Ball Price Performance

Ball stock traded down $0.92 during trading on Thursday, reaching $62.57. The company had a trading volume of 1,348,683 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,873,021. The firm has a market capitalization of $19.42 billion, a PE ratio of 4.72, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.78 and a beta of 0.85. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $62.04 and its 200 day simple moving average is $64.82. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 0.93 and a current ratio of 1.18. Ball Co. has a 1-year low of $42.81 and a 1-year high of $71.32.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The company reported $0.74 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 revenue for the quarter was down 3.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.61 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Ball Co. will post 3.09 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ball Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 17th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 3rd will be issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.28%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 3rd. Ball’s payout ratio is 6.02%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the company. Citigroup dropped their target price on Ball from $73.00 to $66.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, July 8th. Barclays raised their target price on shares of Ball from $71.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, May 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of Ball from $59.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 1st. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on Ball from $64.00 to $61.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, July 17th. Finally, Truist Financial reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $78.00 price objective (up previously from $76.00) on shares of Ball in a report on Friday, August 2nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $69.08.

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.