Citigroup Inc. Purchases 103,712 Shares of Ball Corporation (NYSE:BALL)

Citigroup Inc. increased its position in shares of Ball Corporation (NYSE:BALL) by 84.5% during the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 226,450 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 103,712 shares during the quarter. Citigroup Inc.’s holdings in Ball were worth $11,791,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in BALL. Cary Street Partners Investment Advisory LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Ball during the 1st quarter valued at $32,000. Whipplewood Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Ball by 764.9% during the first quarter. Whipplewood Advisors LLC now owns 813 shares of the company’s stock worth $42,000 after buying an additional 719 shares during the last quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. raised its position in Ball by 40.4% in the first quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 1,311 shares of the company’s stock worth $68,000 after acquiring an additional 377 shares during the period. Parvin Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in Ball in the fourth quarter worth about $70,000. Finally, Farther Finance Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Ball by 51.3% in the first quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 1,474 shares of the company’s stock valued at $77,000 after acquiring an additional 500 shares during the last quarter. 86.51% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on BALL. Citigroup raised their price target on shares of Ball from $55.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 3rd. Loop Capital decreased their target price on Ball from $83.00 to $78.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, May 7th. Royal Bank Of Canada upped their price target on Ball from $69.00 to $70.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 7th. Barclays cut their price target on Ball from $61.00 to $57.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, May 14th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of Ball from $50.00 to $54.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Friday, July 18th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $65.27.

Ball Stock Down 2.2%

Shares of NYSE BALL opened at $53.68 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 1.00 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.23. The company has a market cap of $14.61 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.81, a P/E/G ratio of 1.25 and a beta of 1.08. Ball Corporation has a 52 week low of $43.51 and a 52 week high of $68.12. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $56.72 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $53.14.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last released 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. The company had revenue of $3.34 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.10 billion. Ball had a net margin of 4.49% and a return on equity of 16.81%. Ball’s revenue was up 12.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.74 earnings per share. Research analysts anticipate that Ball Corporation will post 3.48 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ball Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared 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 payout ratio is 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.