Copley Financial Group Inc. Buys Shares of 7,416 Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

Copley Financial Group Inc. purchased a new position in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) in the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 7,416 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $504,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Federated Hermes Inc. lifted its stake in Ball by 0.9% in 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 last quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp increased its holdings in shares of Ball by 2.0% during the 2nd 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 last quarter. Deseret Mutual Benefit Administrators raised its stake in shares of Ball by 17.0% in the 2nd 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 in the last quarter. Moors & Cabot Inc. boosted its position in Ball by 4.5% during the third quarter. Moors & Cabot Inc. now owns 4,442 shares of the company’s stock worth $302,000 after purchasing an additional 192 shares during the period. Finally, Advisors Asset Management Inc. grew its holdings in 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 purchasing an additional 199 shares during the last quarter. 86.51% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts recently issued reports on BALL shares. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $75.00 price objective on shares of Ball in a report on Monday, November 4th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on Ball from $63.00 to $61.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Morgan Stanley raised Ball from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their target price for the company from $69.00 to $78.00 in a report on Wednesday, September 4th. Citigroup upped their price target on Ball from $66.00 to $69.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Finally, Mizuho raised shares of Ball from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $67.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Tuesday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $70.75.

Ball Price Performance

NYSE:BALL traded down $0.21 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $57.78. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 171,781 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,830,852. The company has a market capitalization of $17.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 4.37, a P/E/G ratio of 1.44 and a beta of 0.91. The company has a current ratio of 1.09, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79. Ball Co. has a fifty-two week low of $54.06 and a fifty-two week high of $71.32. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $62.20 and a 200-day moving average of $63.45.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The company reported $0.91 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 the consensus estimate of $3.13 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.83 EPS. Ball’s revenue was down .9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Ball Co. will post 3.15 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ball Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 2nd will be issued a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.38%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 2nd. Ball’s payout ratio is 6.03%.

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.