Estate Counselors LLC Purchases Shares of 135,260 Ball Corporation $BALL

Estate Counselors LLC acquired a new stake in Ball Corporation (NYSE:BALL) during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 135,260 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,043,000. Ball accounts for approximately 0.7% of Estate Counselors LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 18th biggest holding.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of BALL. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its holdings in Ball by 44.2% during the 1st quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 8,002,327 shares of the company’s stock valued at $416,681,000 after purchasing an additional 2,453,630 shares during the period. London Co. of Virginia grew its position in shares of Ball by 61.1% in the 4th quarter. London Co. of Virginia now owns 3,054,393 shares of the company’s stock worth $168,389,000 after buying an additional 1,158,668 shares during the last quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale increased its stake in shares of Ball by 359.3% during the first quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 1,184,629 shares of the company’s stock valued at $60,299,000 after buying an additional 926,728 shares during the period. Nuveen LLC bought a new position in shares of Ball during the first quarter valued at approximately $47,606,000. Finally, Alyeska Investment Group L.P. bought a new position in shares of Ball during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $30,883,000. 86.51% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Mizuho lifted their price target on shares of Ball from $60.00 to $68.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 15th. UBS Group raised their target price on shares of Ball from $54.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 9th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on shares of Ball from $50.00 to $54.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Friday, July 18th. Truist Financial raised their price objective on shares of Ball from $62.00 to $69.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, July 11th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada lifted their price objective on Ball from $69.00 to $70.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 7th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $65.27.

Ball Stock Performance

NYSE:BALL opened at $53.1650 on Thursday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $56.62 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $53.08. Ball Corporation has a 52-week low of $43.51 and a 52-week high of $68.12. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.23, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a current ratio of 1.00. The firm has a market capitalization of $14.47 billion, a PE ratio of 27.55, a P/E/G ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 1.08.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 5th. The company reported $0.90 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.87 by $0.03. Ball had a return on equity of 16.81% and a net margin of 4.49%.The firm had revenue of $3.34 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.10 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.74 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Ball has set its FY 2025 guidance at 3.550-3.650 EPS. Analysts forecast that Ball Corporation will post 3.48 EPS for the current year.

Ball Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 16th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 2nd will be given a $0.20 dividend. 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 presently 41.45%.

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.