Prudential PLC Increases Position in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

Prudential PLC lifted its holdings in shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 123.6% in the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 7,163 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 3,959 shares during the quarter. Prudential PLC’s holdings in Ball were worth $430,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the business. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC purchased a new position in Ball in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $72,000. Quest Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of Ball by 53,376.2% in the second quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 11,230 shares of the company’s stock worth $674,000 after acquiring an additional 11,209 shares during the period. Oak Thistle LLC purchased a new position in shares of Ball in the second quarter worth approximately $308,000. Acadian Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Ball in the 2nd quarter worth $384,000. Finally, Savant Capital LLC raised its stake in shares of Ball by 2.3% in the second quarter. Savant Capital LLC now owns 14,563 shares of the company’s stock worth $874,000 after buying an additional 326 shares during the period. 86.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Ball from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $69.00 to $78.00 in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their target price on Ball from $80.00 to $77.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Citigroup lowered their target price on shares of Ball from $73.00 to $66.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, July 8th. Truist Financial reissued 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. Finally, UBS Group upped their target price on Ball from $56.00 to $59.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 6th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $70.83.

Ball Price Performance

BALL opened at $66.00 on Friday. Ball Co. has a 1 year low of $42.81 and a 1 year high of $71.32. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $63.01 and its 200 day simple moving average is $65.02. The stock has a market capitalization of $20.04 billion, a PE ratio of 4.97, a P/E/G ratio of 1.64 and a beta of 0.88. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a current ratio of 1.18.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The company reported $0.74 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.70 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $2.96 billion for 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% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.61 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Ball Co. will post 3.12 EPS for the current year.

Ball Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 17th. Investors of record on Tuesday, September 3rd will be issued a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.21%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 3rd. 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.