Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) Shares Sold by King Luther Capital Management Corp

King Luther Capital Management Corp reduced its stake in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 1.9% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 141,613 shares of the company’s stock after selling 2,700 shares during the period. King Luther Capital Management Corp’s holdings in Ball were worth $8,500,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Jessup Wealth Management Inc acquired a new position in shares of Ball in the 1st quarter valued at $7,479,000. Parnassus Investments LLC lifted its position in shares of Ball by 5.0% in the 4th quarter. Parnassus Investments LLC now owns 21,062,707 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,211,527,000 after buying an additional 998,527 shares during the last quarter. TD Asset Management Inc boosted its stake in Ball by 4.2% in the first quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 1,453,639 shares of the company’s stock valued at $97,917,000 after acquiring an additional 58,863 shares during the period. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC bought a new position in Ball during the 1st quarter worth $1,973,000. Finally, QRG Capital Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Ball by 306.6% during the second quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 31,750 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,906,000 after buying an additional 23,941 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.51% of the company’s stock.

Ball Stock Performance

Ball stock opened at $66.31 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $20.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 4.99, a P/E/G ratio of 1.64 and a beta of 0.88. The company has a quick ratio of 0.88, a current ratio of 1.18 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $63.70 and a 200 day simple moving average of $65.13. Ball Co. has a 12-month low of $42.81 and a 12-month high of $71.32.

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

Ball Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 17th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 3rd were given a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.21%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, September 3rd. Ball’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 6.02%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

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