Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) Shares Bought by IQ EQ FUND MANAGEMENT IRELAND Ltd

IQ EQ FUND MANAGEMENT IRELAND Ltd lifted its position in shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 3.5% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 57,579 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,961 shares during the quarter. IQ EQ FUND MANAGEMENT IRELAND Ltd’s holdings in Ball were worth $3,910,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Opal Wealth Advisors LLC raised its stake in Ball by 7.6% during the third quarter. Opal Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 3,033 shares of the company’s stock worth $206,000 after acquiring an additional 215 shares during the period. EdgeRock Capital LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Ball during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $624,000. RDA Financial Network lifted its holdings in shares of Ball by 19.2% in the 3rd quarter. RDA Financial Network now owns 15,698 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,066,000 after purchasing an additional 2,530 shares during the last quarter. NBC Securities Inc. boosted its position in Ball by 29.6% during the 3rd quarter. NBC Securities Inc. now owns 2,468 shares of the company’s stock valued at $167,000 after purchasing an additional 563 shares during the period. Finally, Creative Planning grew its stake in Ball by 8.8% during the 3rd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 20,827 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,414,000 after buying an additional 1,679 shares during the last quarter. 86.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on BALL shares. Baird R W upgraded Ball from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 14th. Citigroup raised their price target on shares of Ball from $66.00 to $69.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. UBS Group boosted their price objective on Ball from $56.00 to $59.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 6th. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their target price on Ball from $80.00 to $77.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on Ball from $61.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $71.25.

Ball Price Performance

Shares of Ball stock opened at $67.29 on Thursday. Ball Co. has a 52 week low of $42.81 and a 52 week high of $71.32. The company has a current ratio of 1.18, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79. The stock has a market cap of $20.89 billion, a PE ratio of 5.06, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.63 and a beta of 0.88. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $64.93 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $65.20.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last released its earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The company reported $0.74 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.70 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $2.96 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.10 billion. Ball had a net margin of 32.79% and a return on equity of 19.45%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 3.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.61 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Ball Co. will post 3.12 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ball Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 17th. Investors of record on Tuesday, September 3rd were issued a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.19%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, September 3rd. Ball’s payout ratio is 6.02%.

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.