Virtu Financial LLC Invests $773,000 in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

Virtu Financial LLC purchased a new stake in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm purchased 12,878 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $773,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in BALL. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Ball during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $168,372,000. Boston Partners increased its position in shares of Ball by 114.1% during the first quarter. Boston Partners now owns 4,057,645 shares of the company’s stock worth $273,347,000 after purchasing an additional 2,162,167 shares in the last quarter. Putnam Investments LLC raised its stake in Ball by 39.5% in the 4th quarter. Putnam Investments LLC now owns 5,815,825 shares of the company’s stock valued at $334,526,000 after purchasing an additional 1,645,909 shares during the last quarter. Parnassus Investments LLC lifted its holdings in Ball by 5.0% in the 4th quarter. Parnassus Investments LLC now owns 21,062,707 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,211,527,000 after purchasing an additional 998,527 shares in the last quarter. Finally, M&G Plc acquired a new stake in Ball during the 1st quarter worth $50,193,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.51% of the company’s stock.

Ball Stock Up 0.9 %

Shares of NYSE:BALL opened at $67.11 on Friday. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $63.59 and a 200 day moving average price of $65.12. 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 company has a market capitalization of $20.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 5.05, a PEG ratio of 1.64 and a beta of 0.88.

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

Ball Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 17th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 3rd were paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.19%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, September 3rd. Ball’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 6.02%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Robert W. Baird upgraded shares of Ball from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $70.00 target price for the company in a research report on Wednesday, August 14th. Baird R W upgraded Ball from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 14th. Citigroup cut their price target on Ball from $73.00 to $66.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, July 8th. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price objective on Ball from $80.00 to $77.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Finally, UBS Group raised their target price on Ball from $56.00 to $59.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 6th. One 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. According to MarketBeat, Ball has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $70.83.

Ball Company 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.