Simon Quick Advisors LLC Reduces Stock Position in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

Simon Quick Advisors LLC lessened its stake in shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 2.1% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 33,715 shares of the company’s stock after selling 723 shares during the quarter. Simon Quick Advisors LLC’s holdings in Ball were worth $1,756,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. CX Institutional purchased a new stake in shares of Ball during the 1st quarter valued at about $169,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its holdings in shares of Ball by 53.0% in the first quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 38,289 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,994,000 after buying an additional 13,262 shares during the last quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB boosted its holdings in shares of Ball by 21.9% in the first quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 129,809 shares of the company’s stock worth $6,759,000 after buying an additional 23,311 shares during the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC purchased a new position in shares of Ball in the first quarter worth approximately $382,000. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Ball by 6.0% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,852 shares of the company’s stock worth $201,000 after buying an additional 219 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.51% of the company’s stock.

Ball Price Performance

NYSE:BALL opened at $54.93 on Thursday. The business’s 50-day moving average is $51.06 and its 200 day moving average is $53.05. Ball Co. has a 12 month low of $43.51 and a 12 month high of $68.85. The company has a market capitalization of $15.24 billion, a P/E ratio of 4.34, a P/E/G ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 1.08. The company has a current ratio of 1.00, a quick ratio of 0.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 6th. The company reported $0.76 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.69 by $0.07. Ball had a net margin of 33.98% and a return on equity of 16.17%. The company had revenue of $3.10 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.91 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.68 earnings per share. Ball’s revenue was up 7.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Ball Co. will post 3.48 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ball Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 2nd will be paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 2nd. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.46%. Ball’s payout ratio is currently 47.62%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms recently issued reports on BALL. Loop Capital dropped their price objective on shares of Ball from $83.00 to $78.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, May 7th. Mizuho decreased their target price on shares of Ball from $63.00 to $58.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 15th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of Ball from $44.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 7th. Truist Financial decreased their target price on shares of Ball from $65.00 to $58.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 22nd. Finally, UBS Group decreased their target price on shares of Ball from $55.00 to $54.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 7th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $61.00.

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.