Ball Corporation (NYSE:BALL) Shares Purchased by Townsquare Capital LLC

Townsquare Capital LLC boosted its stake in Ball Corporation (NYSE:BALL) by 417.3% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 52,194 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 42,105 shares during the period. Townsquare Capital LLC’s holdings in Ball were worth $2,718,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in BALL. Brighton Jones LLC increased its position in Ball by 41.2% in the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 5,245 shares of the company’s stock worth $289,000 after buying an additional 1,531 shares during the period. Sterling Capital Management LLC increased its position in Ball by 50.0% in the fourth quarter. Sterling Capital Management LLC now owns 17,538 shares of the company’s stock worth $967,000 after buying an additional 5,847 shares during the period. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. acquired a new stake in Ball in the fourth quarter worth $568,000. Sagespring Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new stake in Ball in the fourth quarter worth $627,000. Finally, Barclays PLC boosted its position in Ball by 33.8% during the 4th quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 1,078,705 shares of the company’s stock worth $59,469,000 after acquiring an additional 272,644 shares during the period. 86.51% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have issued reports on BALL. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on Ball from $50.00 to $54.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Friday, July 18th. Mizuho boosted their price target on Ball from $60.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 15th. Citigroup boosted their price target on Ball from $55.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 3rd. Barclays reduced their price target on Ball from $61.00 to $57.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, May 14th. Finally, Loop Capital reduced their price target on Ball from $83.00 to $78.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, May 7th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $65.27.

Ball Price Performance

Shares of NYSE BALL opened at $53.71 on Tuesday. Ball Corporation has a twelve month low of $43.51 and a twelve month high of $68.12. The company has a current ratio of 1.00, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.23. The company has a market capitalization of $14.62 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.83, a PEG ratio of 1.23 and a beta of 1.08. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $56.68 and a two-hundred day moving average of $53.15.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 5th. The company reported $0.90 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.87 by $0.03. Ball had a return on equity of 16.81% and a net margin of 4.49%. The company had revenue of $3.34 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.10 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.74 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 12.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts expect that Ball Corporation will post 3.48 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ball Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 16th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 2nd will be given a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.5%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, September 2nd. Ball’s dividend payout ratio is 41.45%.

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.