Victory Capital Management Inc. Sells 50,021 Shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

Victory Capital Management Inc. lessened its stake in shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 27.3% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 133,175 shares of the company’s stock after selling 50,021 shares during the quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Ball were worth $7,993,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in BALL. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Ball in the fourth quarter valued at about $168,372,000. Boston Partners grew its holdings in Ball by 114.1% in the 1st 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 during the last quarter. Putnam Investments LLC increased its position in Ball by 39.5% in the 4th quarter. Putnam Investments LLC now owns 5,815,825 shares of the company’s stock worth $334,526,000 after buying an additional 1,645,909 shares during the period. Parnassus Investments LLC boosted its position in shares of Ball by 5.0% in the fourth quarter. Parnassus Investments LLC now owns 21,062,707 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,211,527,000 after acquiring an additional 998,527 shares during the period. Finally, M&G Plc acquired a new stake in shares of Ball in the first quarter worth $50,193,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.51% of the company’s stock.

Ball Price Performance

Ball stock opened at $66.00 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 1.18, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79. The firm has a market capitalization of $20.48 billion, a P/E ratio of 4.97, a PEG ratio of 1.64 and a beta of 0.88. The business has a 50-day moving average of $63.01 and a 200-day moving average of $65.05. Ball Co. has a 1 year low of $42.81 and a 1 year high of $71.32.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 1st. The company reported $0.74 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.70 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $2.96 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.10 billion. Ball had a net margin of 32.79% and a return on equity of 19.45%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 3.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.61 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Ball Co. will post 3.12 EPS for the current year.

Ball Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 17th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 3rd will be issued a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 3rd. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.21%. Ball’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 6.02%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

BALL has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. UBS Group lifted their target price on Ball from $56.00 to $59.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 6th. Baird R W raised shares of Ball from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 14th. Robert W. Baird raised Ball from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $70.00 price target for the company in a report on Wednesday, August 14th. Morgan Stanley raised Ball from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $69.00 to $78.00 in a research note on Wednesday, September 4th. Finally, Citigroup lowered their target price on Ball from $73.00 to $66.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, July 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $70.83.

Ball 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.