Headlands Technologies LLC Makes New $310,000 Investment in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

Headlands Technologies LLC purchased a new position in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund purchased 5,169 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $310,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of BALL. NBC Securities Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Ball by 31.0% in the 4th quarter. NBC Securities Inc. now owns 769 shares of the company’s stock valued at $44,000 after purchasing an additional 182 shares in the last quarter. Independence Bank of Kentucky purchased a new stake in shares of Ball in the 1st quarter valued at $47,000. Friedenthal Financial purchased a new stake in shares of Ball in the 2nd quarter valued at $47,000. Manchester Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Ball by 2,341.5% in the 4th quarter. Manchester Capital Management LLC now owns 1,001 shares of the company’s stock valued at $58,000 after purchasing an additional 960 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Ball in the 2nd quarter valued at $72,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.51% of the company’s stock.

Ball Stock Up 0.6 %

Shares of Ball stock opened at $66.00 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 1.18 and a quick ratio of 0.88. The company has a 50-day moving average of $63.01 and a 200 day moving average of $65.02. The firm has a market cap of $20.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 4.97, a PEG ratio of 1.64 and a beta of 0.88. Ball Co. has a 1 year low of $42.81 and a 1 year high of $71.32.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 1st. The company reported $0.74 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.70 by $0.04. Ball had a net margin of 32.79% and a return on equity of 19.45%. The company had revenue of $2.96 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.10 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.61 EPS. Ball’s revenue for the quarter was down 3.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Ball Co. will post 3.12 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ball Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 17th. Investors of record on Tuesday, September 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.21%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, September 3rd. Ball’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 6.02%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on BALL. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Ball from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $69.00 to $78.00 in a research note on Wednesday, September 4th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped 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. Truist Financial reissued a “buy” rating and set a $78.00 price target (up previously from $76.00) on shares of Ball in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. UBS Group increased their price target on shares of Ball from $56.00 to $59.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 6th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada decreased their price objective on shares of Ball from $80.00 to $77.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, August 5th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $70.83.

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.