Oakview Capital Management L.P. Sells 44,877 Shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

Oakview Capital Management L.P. cut its stake in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 60.5% in the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 29,304 shares of the company’s stock after selling 44,877 shares during the quarter. Ball comprises approximately 5.5% of Oakview Capital Management L.P.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 9th biggest position. Oakview Capital Management L.P.’s holdings in Ball were worth $1,759,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Independence Bank of Kentucky purchased a new stake in shares of Ball during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $47,000. Friedenthal Financial purchased a new stake in Ball in the second quarter valued at $47,000. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Ball by 334.0% in the 2nd quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,059 shares of the company’s stock valued at $68,000 after purchasing an additional 815 shares during the last quarter. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC purchased a new position in shares of Ball during the 2nd quarter worth $72,000. Finally, Deseret Mutual Benefit Administrators increased its position in shares of Ball by 17.0% during the 2nd quarter. Deseret Mutual Benefit Administrators now owns 1,280 shares of the company’s stock worth $77,000 after purchasing an additional 186 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.51% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Morgan Stanley raised shares of 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 Ball from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 14th. Citigroup cut their price objective on Ball from $73.00 to $66.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, July 8th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on Ball from $64.00 to $61.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, July 17th. Finally, Robert W. Baird upgraded shares of Ball from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $70.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, August 14th. One research 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 company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $70.83.

Ball Trading Up 0.7 %

Shares of Ball stock opened at $67.47 on Friday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $64.25 and a 200-day simple moving average of $65.21. Ball Co. has a 12-month low of $42.81 and a 12-month high of $71.32. 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 stock has a market cap of $20.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 5.08, a PEG ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 0.88.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last announced its earnings results 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 return on equity of 19.45% and a net margin of 32.79%. The business’s revenue was down 3.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.61 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that Ball Co. will post 3.12 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ball Announces Dividend

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