Empirical Finance LLC Sells 794 Shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

Empirical Finance LLC lessened its holdings in shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 6.9% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 10,753 shares of the company’s stock after selling 794 shares during the period. Empirical Finance LLC’s holdings in Ball were worth $645,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Cozad Asset Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Ball in the fourth quarter worth $221,000. Brighton Jones LLC grew its position in Ball by 7.3% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 7,515 shares of the company’s stock worth $432,000 after purchasing an additional 509 shares during the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Ball by 29.2% during the 4th quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 189,637 shares of the company’s stock worth $10,908,000 after purchasing an additional 42,864 shares during the period. New York Life Investment Management LLC raised its position in shares of Ball by 0.6% during the fourth quarter. New York Life Investment Management LLC now owns 50,448 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,902,000 after buying an additional 311 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Natixis Advisors L.P. lifted its stake in shares of Ball by 35.4% in the fourth quarter. Natixis Advisors L.P. now owns 93,669 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,387,000 after buying an additional 24,470 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 86.51% of the company’s stock.

Ball Trading Up 2.3 %

BALL stock opened at $63.82 on Friday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $62.14 and a 200 day moving average price of $64.83. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 1.18 and a quick ratio of 0.93. Ball Co. has a fifty-two week low of $42.81 and a fifty-two week high of $71.32. The stock has a market capitalization of $19.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 4.80, a P/E/G ratio of 1.78 and a beta of 0.85.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The company reported $0.74 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.70 by $0.04. Ball had a return on equity of 19.45% and a net margin of 32.79%. The business had revenue of $2.96 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.10 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.61 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 3.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts expect that Ball Co. will post 3.09 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ball Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 17th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 3rd will be paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, September 3rd. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.25%. Ball’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 6.02%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

BALL has been the topic of several research reports. UBS Group boosted their price target on Ball from $56.00 to $59.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 6th. Baird R W upgraded Ball from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 14th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target on shares of Ball from $64.00 to $61.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, July 17th. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Ball from $71.00 to $72.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, May 6th. Finally, Truist Financial reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $78.00 target price (up from $76.00) on shares of Ball in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $69.08.

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.