Axa S.A. Sells 37,233 Shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

Axa S.A. reduced its stake in shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 11.6% in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 284,705 shares of the company’s stock after selling 37,233 shares during the quarter. Axa S.A.’s holdings in Ball were worth $17,088,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. 9258 Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Ball during the 4th quarter worth approximately $210,000. Franklin Resources Inc. grew its holdings in Ball by 1.1% during the 4th 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 during the period. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. raised its position in shares of Ball by 7.5% in the 4th quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. now owns 52,891 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,042,000 after acquiring an additional 3,671 shares in the last quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH increased its holdings in Ball by 2.4% in the fourth quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 134,930 shares of the company’s stock worth $7,761,000 after purchasing an additional 3,219 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Treasurer of the State of North Carolina increased its stake in shares of Ball by 1.0% in the 4th quarter. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina now owns 140,669 shares of the company’s stock valued at $8,091,000 after acquiring an additional 1,350 shares in the last quarter. 86.51% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Ball Stock Up 0.7 %

BALL stock opened at $67.47 on Friday. Ball Co. has a 1-year low of $42.81 and a 1-year high of $71.32. The stock has a market cap of $20.48 billion, a P/E ratio of 5.08, a P/E/G ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 0.88. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $64.25 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $65.21. The company has a current ratio of 1.18, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The company reported $0.74 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.70 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $2.96 billion during 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 firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 3.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.61 earnings per share. Analysts expect that Ball Co. will post 3.12 EPS for the current year.

Ball Dividend Announcement

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on BALL shares. Baird R W upgraded shares of Ball from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 14th. Morgan Stanley raised Ball from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $69.00 to $78.00 in a research note on Wednesday, September 4th. Robert W. Baird raised Ball from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $70.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, August 14th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price target on shares of Ball from $64.00 to $61.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, July 17th. Finally, Truist Financial reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $78.00 price objective (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 assigned a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Ball presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $70.83.

Ball Company 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.