Franklin Resources Inc. Has $453.14 Million Stock Position in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

Franklin Resources Inc. increased its holdings in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 4.7% during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 6,954,876 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 309,587 shares during the quarter. Franklin Resources Inc.’s holdings in Ball were worth $453,144,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Meeder Asset Management Inc. increased its holdings in Ball by 400.4% during the 3rd quarter. Meeder Asset Management Inc. now owns 162,690 shares of the company’s stock worth $11,048,000 after purchasing an additional 130,175 shares in the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. boosted its position in shares of Ball by 9.7% during the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 538,045 shares of the company’s stock valued at $32,293,000 after buying an additional 47,539 shares during the last quarter. SkyView Investment Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Ball by 12.3% during the second quarter. SkyView Investment Advisors LLC now owns 9,039 shares of the company’s stock worth $543,000 after buying an additional 990 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in Ball by 7.7% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,414,615 shares of the company’s stock valued at $144,951,000 after buying an additional 171,924 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Hemenway Trust Co LLC lifted its stake in Ball by 46.3% during the 3rd quarter. Hemenway Trust Co LLC now owns 275,083 shares of the company’s stock valued at $18,681,000 after acquiring an additional 87,120 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 86.51% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

BALL has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $75.00 target price on shares of Ball in a research note on Monday, November 4th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on shares of Ball from $63.00 to $61.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Citigroup lifted their target price on shares of Ball from $66.00 to $69.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Morgan Stanley upgraded Ball from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $69.00 to $78.00 in a research note on Wednesday, September 4th. Finally, Mizuho raised Ball from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $67.00 price target for the company in a research report on Tuesday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $70.75.

Ball Stock Up 0.4 %

Shares of NYSE BALL opened at $58.24 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 1.09 and a quick ratio of 0.82. The stock has a market capitalization of $17.38 billion, a PE ratio of 4.39, a P/E/G ratio of 1.44 and a beta of 0.91. Ball Co. has a one year low of $54.06 and a one year high of $71.32. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $62.05 and its 200-day moving average price is $63.37.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The company reported $0.91 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.87 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $3.08 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.13 billion. Ball had a net margin of 34.05% and a return on equity of 17.46%. The company’s revenue was down .9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.83 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Ball Co. will post 3.15 EPS for the current year.

Ball Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Investors of record on Monday, December 2nd will be issued a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.37%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 2nd. Ball’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 6.03%.

Ball 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.