Empirical Finance LLC Increases Position in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

Empirical Finance LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 2.0% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 10,969 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 216 shares during the period. Empirical Finance LLC’s holdings in Ball were worth $745,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of BALL. Federated Hermes Inc. grew its stake in shares of Ball by 0.9% in the 2nd quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 18,941 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,137,000 after buying an additional 162 shares during the period. Fifth Third Bancorp grew its stake in shares of Ball by 2.0% in the 2nd quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 8,743 shares of the company’s stock valued at $525,000 after buying an additional 174 shares during the period. Deseret Mutual Benefit Administrators grew 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 buying an additional 186 shares during the period. Opal Wealth Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Ball by 7.6% in the 3rd quarter. Opal Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 3,033 shares of the company’s stock valued at $206,000 after buying an additional 215 shares during the period. Finally, Castleview Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of Ball by 9.7% in the 3rd quarter. Castleview Partners LLC now owns 2,501 shares of the company’s stock valued at $170,000 after buying an additional 221 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.51% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Robert W. Baird raised shares of Ball from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $70.00 price target for the company in a research note on Wednesday, August 14th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $75.00 price objective on shares of Ball in a report on Monday, November 4th. Truist Financial restated a “buy” rating and issued a $78.00 price objective (up from $76.00) on shares of Ball in a report on Friday, August 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price objective on shares of Ball from $63.00 to $61.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Baird R W upgraded shares of Ball from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 14th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Ball currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $70.75.

Ball Price Performance

Ball stock opened at $60.92 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $18.18 billion, a PE ratio of 4.59, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 0.90. Ball Co. has a 52-week low of $51.62 and a 52-week high of $71.32. The company has a quick ratio of 0.82, a current ratio of 1.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79. The company’s 50 day moving average is $64.51 and its two-hundred day moving average is $64.61.

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

Ball Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 2nd will be given a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 2nd. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.31%. Ball’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 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.