Van ECK Associates Corp Boosts Holdings in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

Van ECK Associates Corp grew its position in shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 5.5% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 8,577 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 449 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp’s holdings in Ball were worth $562,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Ball by 0.8% during 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 during the period. Boston Partners increased its holdings in Ball by 114.1% in the first quarter. Boston Partners now owns 4,057,645 shares of the company’s stock valued at $273,347,000 after buying an additional 2,162,167 shares in the last quarter. Mirova US LLC lifted its position in shares of Ball by 0.5% during the 2nd quarter. Mirova US LLC now owns 2,495,497 shares of the company’s stock valued at $149,780,000 after acquiring an additional 13,320 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in shares of Ball by 7.7% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,414,615 shares of the company’s stock worth $144,951,000 after acquiring an additional 171,924 shares during the period. Finally, Raymond James & Associates grew its holdings in shares of Ball by 6.1% in the 3rd quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 1,720,859 shares of the company’s stock worth $116,864,000 after acquiring an additional 99,306 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.51% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

BALL has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Baird R W upgraded Ball from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 14th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $75.00 target price on shares of Ball in a report on Monday, November 4th. Truist Financial reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $78.00 price target (up previously from $76.00) on shares of Ball in a report on Friday, August 2nd. Mizuho cut their price objective on Ball from $69.00 to $67.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Finally, 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 report on Wednesday, August 14th. One 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 assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Ball has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $70.75.

Ball Stock Performance

NYSE BALL opened at $60.64 on Wednesday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $64.74 and its 200 day moving average price is $64.81. 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 Co. has a twelve month low of $48.35 and a twelve month high of $71.32. The company has a market capitalization of $18.10 billion, a PE ratio of 4.57, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.51 and a beta of 0.90.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The company reported $0.91 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.87 by $0.04. Ball had a net margin of 34.05% and a return on equity of 17.46%. The business had revenue of $3.08 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.13 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.83 EPS. The company’s revenue was down .9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts predict 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 given a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.32%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 2nd. Ball’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 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.