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

Pitcairn Co. decreased its stake in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 11.1% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 3,210 shares of the company’s stock after selling 401 shares during the period. Pitcairn Co.’s holdings in Ball were worth $218,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Cerity Partners LLC lifted its position in Ball by 61.4% in the third quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 50,653 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,440,000 after acquiring an additional 19,266 shares during the last quarter. Meridian Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Ball in the 3rd quarter valued at about $416,000. Raymond James Trust N.A. grew its stake in Ball by 0.7% during the 3rd quarter. Raymond James Trust N.A. now owns 59,994 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,074,000 after buying an additional 444 shares during the last quarter. Trustmark National Bank Trust Department lifted its stake in Ball by 12.1% in the third quarter. Trustmark National Bank Trust Department now owns 24,870 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,689,000 after buying an additional 2,680 shares during the last quarter. Finally, King Luther Capital Management Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Ball by 0.3% in the third quarter. King Luther Capital Management Corp now owns 141,998 shares of the company’s stock valued at $9,643,000 after acquiring an additional 385 shares during the period. 86.51% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have issued reports on the company. Robert W. Baird upgraded 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. Morgan Stanley upgraded Ball from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $69.00 to $78.00 in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th. Baird R W upgraded shares of Ball from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 14th. Truist Financial reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $78.00 price target (up from $76.00) on shares of Ball in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. Finally, Mizuho dropped their price objective on shares of Ball from $69.00 to $67.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, November 4th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $70.75.

Ball Stock Performance

Ball stock opened at $62.59 on Thursday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $63.81 and a 200 day moving average price of $64.19. Ball Co. has a 52 week low of $53.69 and a 52 week high of $71.32. The firm has a market capitalization of $18.68 billion, a P/E ratio of 4.72, a PEG ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 0.90. The company has a current ratio of 1.09, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The company reported $0.91 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.87 by $0.04. Ball had a net margin of 34.05% and a return on equity of 17.46%. The company had revenue of $3.08 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.13 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.83 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was down .9% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts anticipate that Ball Co. will post 3.15 earnings per share for the current year.

Ball Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 2nd will be issued a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 2nd. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.28%. Ball’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 6.03%.

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.