DRW Securities LLC Sells 878 Shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

DRW Securities LLC decreased its holdings in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 19.1% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 3,714 shares of the company’s stock after selling 878 shares during the quarter. DRW Securities LLC’s holdings in Ball were worth $252,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Estate Counselors LLC purchased a new position in Ball in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $1,825,000. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Ball by 16.9% during the third quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 39,904 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,709,000 after buying an additional 5,770 shares during the last quarter. Cerity Partners LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Ball by 61.4% in the third quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 50,653 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,440,000 after buying an additional 19,266 shares in the last quarter. Meridian Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Ball during the third quarter worth $416,000. Finally, Raymond James Trust N.A. grew its stake in Ball by 0.7% during the third quarter. Raymond James Trust N.A. now owns 59,994 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,074,000 after acquiring an additional 444 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 86.51% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have commented on BALL shares. Baird R W upgraded shares of Ball from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 14th. Mizuho decreased their target price on Ball from $69.00 to $67.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Robert W. Baird upgraded 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. Morgan Stanley raised Ball from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $69.00 to $78.00 in a report on Wednesday, September 4th. Finally, Truist Financial reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $78.00 target price (up from $76.00) on shares of Ball in a report on Friday, August 2nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $70.75.

Ball Price Performance

Ball stock opened at $62.59 on Thursday. Ball Co. has a 12-month low of $53.69 and a 12-month high of $71.32. The company has a current ratio of 1.09, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $63.81 and a 200-day moving average price of $64.19. The firm has a market capitalization of $18.68 billion, a PE ratio of 4.72, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 0.90.

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

Ball Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 2nd will be paid a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 2nd. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.28%. Ball’s payout ratio is 6.03%.

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.