Royal London Asset Management Ltd. Increases Position in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

Royal London Asset Management Ltd. boosted its position in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 8.2% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 137,203 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 10,359 shares during the period. Royal London Asset Management Ltd.’s holdings in Ball were worth $9,317,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. QRG Capital Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Ball by 306.6% in the second quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 31,750 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,906,000 after buying an additional 23,941 shares during the period. SG Americas Securities LLC lifted its holdings in Ball by 130.1% during the second quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 98,736 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,926,000 after purchasing an additional 55,827 shares during the last quarter. Czech National Bank boosted its position in Ball by 6.6% during the second quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 59,146 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,550,000 after purchasing an additional 3,669 shares during the period. M&G Plc raised its position in shares of Ball by 0.3% in the second quarter. M&G Plc now owns 751,423 shares of the company’s stock valued at $45,085,000 after purchasing an additional 2,280 shares during the period. Finally, Friedenthal Financial bought a new position in Ball in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $47,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.51% of the company’s stock.

Ball Stock Performance

Ball stock opened at $57.11 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $62.95 and its 200-day moving average price is $63.78. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a current ratio of 1.09. The stock has a market cap of $17.04 billion, a P/E ratio of 4.31, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.53 and a beta of 0.91. Ball Co. has a fifty-two week low of $54.06 and a fifty-two week high of $71.32.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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 firm had revenue of $3.08 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.13 billion. Ball had a net margin of 34.05% and a return on equity of 17.46%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down .9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.83 EPS. On average, equities research analysts expect that Ball Co. will post 3.15 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ball Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Investors of record on Monday, December 2nd will be issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.40%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 2nd. Ball’s dividend payout ratio is currently 6.03%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

BALL has been the subject of several analyst reports. Baird R W raised shares of Ball from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 14th. Robert W. Baird raised shares of Ball from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $70.00 price objective for the company in a report on Wednesday, August 14th. Citigroup raised their price objective 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 cut their price objective on shares of Ball from $63.00 to $61.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised shares of Ball from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $69.00 to $78.00 in a report on Wednesday, September 4th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $70.75.

Ball Company 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.