North Star Asset Management Inc. Cuts Stock Holdings in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

North Star Asset Management Inc. lessened its holdings in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 0.9% during the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 189,271 shares of the company’s stock after selling 1,719 shares during the quarter. North Star Asset Management Inc. owned 0.06% of Ball worth $11,360,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in BALL. Independence Bank of Kentucky acquired a new position in Ball during the first quarter worth about $47,000. NBC Securities Inc. increased 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 purchasing an additional 182 shares in the last quarter. Friedenthal Financial purchased a new stake in Ball during the second quarter worth $47,000. Manchester Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Ball by 2,341.5% in the fourth quarter. Manchester Capital Management LLC now owns 1,001 shares of the company’s stock valued at $58,000 after purchasing an additional 960 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Deseret Mutual Benefit Administrators increased its position in shares of Ball by 17.0% in the second quarter. Deseret Mutual Benefit Administrators now owns 1,280 shares of the company’s stock valued at $77,000 after buying an additional 186 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.51% of the company’s stock.

Ball Stock Down 0.4 %

BALL stock opened at $64.29 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $62.47 and a 200-day simple moving average of $64.92. The company has a market capitalization of $19.95 billion, a P/E ratio of 4.84, a PEG ratio of 1.61 and a beta of 0.88. Ball Co. has a twelve month low of $42.81 and a twelve month high of $71.32. The company has a current ratio of 1.18, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79.

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

Ball Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 17th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 3rd will be issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.24%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, September 3rd. Ball’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 6.02%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the stock. Truist Financial reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $78.00 price objective (up from $76.00) on shares of Ball in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. Royal Bank of Canada cut their price objective on Ball from $80.00 to $77.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Baird R W raised Ball from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 14th. Robert W. Baird raised Ball from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $70.00 price target for the company in a research report on Wednesday, August 14th. Finally, Citigroup reduced their price objective 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, seven have given a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $69.85.

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.