Paloma Partners Management Co Boosts Stake in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

Paloma Partners Management Co raised its position in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 38.7% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 14,000 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 3,909 shares during the quarter. Paloma Partners Management Co’s holdings in Ball were worth $951,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in BALL. Peterson Financial Group Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Ball in the 3rd quarter valued at $30,000. Friedenthal Financial purchased a new stake in Ball during the second quarter worth about $47,000. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Ball during the third quarter worth about $47,000. Quarry LP boosted its stake in shares of Ball by 598.6% in the second quarter. Quarry LP now owns 999 shares of the company’s stock valued at $60,000 after purchasing an additional 856 shares during the period. Finally, Brooklyn Investment Group acquired a new position in shares of Ball in the third quarter valued at approximately $66,000. 86.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

BALL has been the topic of a number of research reports. Citigroup increased their target price on shares of Ball from $66.00 to $69.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their target price on Ball from $63.00 to $61.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, November 1st. Mizuho cut their price target on Ball from $69.00 to $67.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, November 4th. Morgan Stanley upgraded Ball from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $69.00 to $78.00 in a research note on Wednesday, September 4th. Finally, Robert W. Baird upgraded shares of Ball from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $70.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, August 14th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $70.75.

Ball Price Performance

Shares of BALL opened at $62.83 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 1.09 and a quick ratio of 0.82. Ball Co. has a 1-year low of $54.06 and a 1-year high of $71.32. The stock has a market cap of $18.75 billion, a PE ratio of 4.74, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.55 and a beta of 0.90. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $63.64 and a 200 day moving average price of $64.04.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The company reported $0.91 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.87 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $3.08 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.13 billion. Ball had a return on equity of 17.46% and a net margin of 34.05%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down .9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.83 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Ball Co. will post 3.15 EPS for the current year.

Ball Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 2nd will be given a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 2nd. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.27%. Ball’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 6.03%.

Ball 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.