Aristeia Capital L.L.C. Invests $558,000 in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

Aristeia Capital L.L.C. purchased a new stake in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) during the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 9,296 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $558,000.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in BALL. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp boosted its stake in Ball by 60.2% in the second quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp now owns 60,295 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,619,000 after purchasing an additional 22,650 shares in the last quarter. Appian Way Asset Management LP lifted its position in Ball by 140.0% during the 2nd quarter. Appian Way Asset Management LP now owns 136,312 shares of the company’s stock worth $8,181,000 after buying an additional 79,512 shares in the last quarter. Point72 DIFC Ltd bought a new stake in Ball during the 2nd quarter worth about $1,340,000. Marshall Wace LLP acquired a new stake in Ball in the 2nd quarter valued at about $234,000. Finally, Lombard Odier Asset Management Europe Ltd raised its stake in shares of Ball by 686.6% in the second quarter. Lombard Odier Asset Management Europe Ltd now owns 82,796 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,969,000 after acquiring an additional 72,270 shares during the last quarter. 86.51% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently weighed in on BALL. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price objective on shares of Ball from $80.00 to $77.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, August 5th. UBS Group upped their target price 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. Robert W. Baird raised shares of Ball from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $70.00 price target for the company in a research note on Wednesday, August 14th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on shares of Ball from $64.00 to $61.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, July 17th. Finally, Citigroup cut their price target on Ball from $73.00 to $66.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, July 8th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $70.83.

Ball Stock Performance

BALL stock opened at $67.23 on Tuesday. Ball Co. has a 1-year low of $42.81 and a 1-year high of $71.32. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $63.83 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $65.16. The firm has a market cap of $20.87 billion, a PE ratio of 5.06, a P/E/G ratio of 1.64 and a beta of 0.88. 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 issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 1st. The company reported $0.74 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.70 by $0.04. Ball had a return on equity of 19.45% and a net margin of 32.79%. The business had revenue of $2.96 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.10 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.61 EPS. Ball’s quarterly revenue was down 3.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts forecast that Ball Co. will post 3.12 earnings per share for the current year.

Ball Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 17th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 3rd were given a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.19%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, September 3rd. Ball’s dividend payout ratio is 6.02%.

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.