Thrivent Financial for Lutherans Reduces Holdings in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

Thrivent Financial for Lutherans lowered its position in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 41.8% during the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 1,735,759 shares of the company’s stock after selling 1,249,041 shares during the period. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans owned 0.56% of Ball worth $104,181,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in BALL. Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB publ grew its position in shares of Ball by 0.9% in the second quarter. Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB publ now owns 69,977 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,200,000 after purchasing an additional 600 shares in the last quarter. AE Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Ball during the second quarter worth $396,000. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board grew its holdings in Ball by 4.3% in the 2nd quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 487,420 shares of the company’s stock valued at $29,255,000 after buying an additional 20,061 shares in the last quarter. Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc. increased its stake in shares of Ball by 36.9% in the 2nd quarter. Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc. now owns 2,590 shares of the company’s stock worth $155,000 after acquiring an additional 698 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Delaney Dennis R raised its holdings in shares of Ball by 109.7% during the 2nd quarter. Delaney Dennis R now owns 19,415 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,165,000 after acquiring an additional 10,155 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.51% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on BALL shares. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Ball from $56.00 to $59.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 6th. Robert W. Baird upgraded shares of Ball from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $70.00 price target for the company in a 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. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on Ball from $64.00 to $61.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, July 17th. Finally, Citigroup reduced their target price on Ball from $73.00 to $66.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research 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, Ball presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $70.83.

Ball Stock Performance

Shares of Ball stock opened at $66.31 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 1.18 and a quick ratio of 0.88. The stock has a market capitalization of $20.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 4.99, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.64 and a beta of 0.88. The business has a 50-day moving average of $63.70 and a 200 day moving average of $65.14. Ball Co. has a 12 month low of $42.81 and a 12 month high of $71.32.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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 firm had revenue of $2.96 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.10 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.61 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 3.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Ball Co. will post 3.12 earnings per share for the current year.

Ball Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 17th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 3rd were paid a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.21%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, September 3rd. Ball’s payout ratio is currently 6.02%.

About Ball

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.