Ball Corporation (NYSE:BALL) Position Lowered by New York State Teachers Retirement System

New York State Teachers Retirement System trimmed its position in Ball Corporation (NYSE:BALL) by 2.7% in the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 236,299 shares of the company’s stock after selling 6,602 shares during the period. New York State Teachers Retirement System’s holdings in Ball were worth $12,304,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of Ball by 5.0% during the first quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. now owns 122,483 shares of the company’s stock worth $6,378,000 after purchasing an additional 5,841 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Ball during the 4th quarter valued at about $94,861,000. PFG Investments LLC acquired a new stake in Ball during the first quarter worth about $307,000. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in Ball by 12.2% in the first quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. now owns 55,997 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,916,000 after acquiring an additional 6,106 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its holdings in Ball by 53.0% in the first quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 38,289 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,994,000 after acquiring an additional 13,262 shares during the last quarter. 86.51% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently commented on BALL. Mizuho lowered their target price on Ball from $63.00 to $58.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 15th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on Ball from $44.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 7th. Loop Capital dropped their target price on Ball from $83.00 to $78.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, May 7th. Barclays reduced their price target on shares of Ball from $61.00 to $57.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, May 14th. Finally, UBS Group dropped their price objective on shares of Ball from $55.00 to $54.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 7th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $61.40.

Ball Trading Down 0.2%

NYSE:BALL opened at $58.61 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $16.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.89, a PEG ratio of 1.58 and a beta of 1.08. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.10, a quick ratio of 0.70 and a current ratio of 1.04. Ball Corporation has a 1 year low of $43.51 and a 1 year high of $68.12. The business has a fifty day moving average of $53.98 and a 200-day moving average of $52.67.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, May 6th. The company reported $0.76 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.69 by $0.07. The firm had revenue of $3.10 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.91 billion. Ball had a net margin of 4.18% and a return on equity of 15.41%. Ball’s revenue was up 7.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.68 EPS. Equities analysts predict that Ball Corporation will post 3.48 earnings per share for the current year.

Ball Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 2nd were issued a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.36%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 2nd. Ball’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 47.62%.

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.