Railway Pension Investments Ltd Makes New Investment in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

Railway Pension Investments Ltd purchased a new stake in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 198,200 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,896,000. Railway Pension Investments Ltd owned 0.06% of Ball at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in BALL. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC increased its position in Ball by 1.7% during the 2nd quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 15,578 shares of the company’s stock valued at $935,000 after purchasing an additional 253 shares during the period. First Merchants Corp grew its holdings in shares of Ball by 13.1% during the second quarter. First Merchants Corp now owns 47,330 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,841,000 after buying an additional 5,481 shares during the last quarter. Everhart Financial Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Ball by 29.2% during the second quarter. Everhart Financial Group Inc. now owns 3,850 shares of the company’s stock worth $231,000 after acquiring an additional 869 shares in the last quarter. JB Capital LLC raised its holdings in shares of Ball by 9.9% in the 2nd quarter. JB Capital LLC now owns 47,193 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,833,000 after acquiring an additional 4,243 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fifth Third Bancorp lifted its position in Ball by 2.0% in the 2nd quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 8,743 shares of the company’s stock valued at $525,000 after acquiring an additional 174 shares in the last quarter. 86.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Ball Price Performance

BALL stock traded down $0.20 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $64.14. 109,175 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,870,499. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $62.02 and a 200-day moving average price of $64.76. Ball Co. has a 52-week low of $42.81 and a 52-week high of $71.32. The company has a market capitalization of $19.91 billion, a P/E ratio of 4.84, a P/E/G ratio of 1.78 and a beta of 0.85. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 1.18 and a quick ratio of 0.93.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 1st. The company reported $0.74 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.70 by $0.04. Ball had a net margin of 32.79% and a return on equity of 19.45%. The company 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 company earned $0.61 earnings per share. Ball’s revenue for the quarter was down 3.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts anticipate that Ball Co. will post 3.09 earnings per share for the current year.

Ball Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 17th. Investors of record on Tuesday, September 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.25%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, September 3rd. Ball’s payout ratio is 6.02%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have recently commented on the company. Royal Bank of Canada lowered 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. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on Ball from $59.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 1st. Truist Financial reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $78.00 target price (up previously from $76.00) on shares of Ball in a report on Friday, August 2nd. Robert W. Baird upgraded shares of Ball from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $70.00 price target on the stock in a report on Wednesday, August 14th. Finally, Citigroup decreased their price target on Ball from $73.00 to $66.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, July 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $69.08.

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.