Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) Sees Large Drop in Short Interest

Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) saw a significant drop in short interest during the month of October. As of October 31st, there was short interest totalling 5,170,000 shares, a drop of 15.7% from the October 15th total of 6,130,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 1,490,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 3.5 days. Approximately 1.7% of the shares of the company are short sold.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Federated Hermes Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Ball by 0.9% during the second quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 18,941 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,137,000 after acquiring an additional 162 shares during the period. Fifth Third Bancorp lifted its holdings in shares of Ball by 2.0% during the second quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 8,743 shares of the company’s stock valued at $525,000 after acquiring an additional 174 shares during the period. Deseret Mutual Benefit Administrators lifted its holdings in shares of Ball by 17.0% during the second quarter. Deseret Mutual Benefit Administrators now owns 1,280 shares of the company’s stock valued at $77,000 after acquiring an additional 186 shares during the period. Moors & Cabot Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Ball by 4.5% during the third quarter. Moors & Cabot Inc. now owns 4,442 shares of the company’s stock valued at $302,000 after acquiring an additional 192 shares during the period. Finally, Advisors Asset Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Ball by 1.2% during the third quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 16,895 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,147,000 after acquiring an additional 199 shares during the period. 86.51% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have commented on the company. Citigroup increased their price target on Ball from $66.00 to $69.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on Ball from $63.00 to $61.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, November 1st. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $75.00 price target on shares of Ball in a 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 on the stock in a report on Wednesday, August 14th. Finally, Mizuho lowered 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. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $70.75.

Ball Stock Performance

BALL traded down $0.25 during trading on Monday, reaching $60.67. 710,417 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,801,957. Ball has a fifty-two week low of $51.65 and a fifty-two week high of $71.32. The company has a quick ratio of 0.82, a current ratio of 1.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $64.51 and a 200 day moving average price of $64.58. The company has a market capitalization of $18.11 billion, a P/E ratio of 4.59, a PEG ratio of 1.53 and a beta of 0.90.

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

Ball Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 2nd will be issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 2nd. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.32%. Ball’s payout ratio is presently 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.