Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) Short Interest Update

Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) saw a significant decline in short interest in June. As of June 30th, there was short interest totalling 6,730,000 shares, a decline of 8.3% from the June 15th total of 7,340,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 2,100,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 3.2 days. Currently, 2.2% of the company’s stock are sold short.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Pedro Henrique Mariani sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $69.90, for a total value of $349,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 9,844 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $688,095.60. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. 0.81% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ball

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Friedenthal Financial purchased a new stake in shares of Ball during the 4th quarter worth about $43,000. Wetzel Investment Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in Ball in the 4th quarter valued at about $43,000. NBC Securities Inc. lifted its stake in Ball by 31.0% in the 4th quarter. NBC Securities Inc. now owns 769 shares of the company’s stock valued at $44,000 after buying an additional 182 shares in the last quarter. Independence Bank of Kentucky purchased a new position in Ball in the 1st quarter valued at about $47,000. Finally, Salem Investment Counselors Inc. purchased a new position in Ball in the 4th quarter valued at about $57,000. 86.51% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price target on Ball from $74.00 to $82.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, April 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on Ball from $59.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 1st. Citigroup reduced their price target on Ball from $73.00 to $66.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, July 8th. UBS Group reduced their price target on Ball from $57.00 to $56.00 and set a “sell” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Robert W. Baird upped their target price on Ball from $62.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, April 29th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Ball has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $69.08.

Ball Stock Performance

NYSE:BALL traded down $0.18 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $61.92. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,421,283 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,966,215. Ball has a 1 year low of $42.81 and a 1 year high of $71.32. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.75, a current ratio of 1.21 and a quick ratio of 0.93. The stock has a market cap of $19.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 4.66, a PEG ratio of 1.68 and a beta of 0.85. The business’s fifty day moving average is $65.22 and its two-hundred day moving average is $63.54.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, April 26th. The company reported $0.68 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.56 by $0.12. Ball had a net margin of 31.42% and a return on equity of 21.79%. The company had revenue of $2.87 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.23 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.69 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down 17.6% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts anticipate that Ball will post 3.09 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ball announced that its board has initiated a stock repurchase program on Wednesday, April 24th that permits the company to buyback 40,000,000 outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the company to purchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are generally an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Ball Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 3rd were issued a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.29%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 3rd. Ball’s payout ratio is 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.