Applied Finance Capital Management LLC Buys Shares of 7,382 Ball Corporation (NYSE:BALL)

Key Points

• Applied Finance Capital Management LLC invested $384,000 in Ball Corporation by purchasing 7,382 shares during the first quarter, signaling growing interest from institutional investors.
• Ball Corporation surpassed analysts' earnings expectations with a reported EPS of $0.76 for the latest quarter, alongside a revenue of $3.10 billion, demonstrating a 7.8% increase year-over-year.
• The company recently declared a quarterly dividend of $0.20 per share, representing an annualized yield of **1.36%**, with a dividend payout ratio of **47.62%**.

Applied Finance Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Ball Corporation (NYSE:BALL - Free Report) during the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor purchased 7,382 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $384,000.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Ball in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $190,105,000. London Co. of Virginia boosted its holdings in shares of Ball by 61.1% in the fourth quarter. London Co. of Virginia now owns 3,054,393 shares of the company's stock worth $168,389,000 after acquiring an additional 1,158,668 shares during the period. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale boosted its holdings in shares of Ball by 359.3% in the first quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 1,184,629 shares of the company's stock worth $60,299,000 after acquiring an additional 926,728 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of Ball by 25.3% in the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 4,159,436 shares of the company's stock worth $229,310,000 after acquiring an additional 840,357 shares during the period. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Ball by 11.6% in the fourth quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 7,758,604 shares of the company's stock worth $427,732,000 after acquiring an additional 803,728 shares during the period. 86.51% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on BALL. Barclays lowered their price objective on Ball from $61.00 to $57.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, May 14th. Loop Capital lowered their price objective on Ball from $83.00 to $78.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, May 7th. Citigroup raised their price target on Ball from $55.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 3rd. Bank of America restated a "neutral" rating and set a $66.00 price target (down previously from $67.00) on shares of Ball in a research report on Wednesday, July 9th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on Ball from $50.00 to $54.00 and gave the company an "underweight" rating in a research report on Friday, July 18th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Ball presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $64.64.

Ball Stock Down 0.4%

Shares of BALL stock traded down $0.24 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $58.54. 604,352 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,603,057. The stock's fifty day simple moving average is $56.23 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $53.09. Ball Corporation has a 12-month low of $43.51 and a 12-month high of $68.12. The stock has a market cap of $16.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.83, a PEG ratio of 1.64 and a beta of 1.08. The company has a quick ratio of 0.70, a current ratio of 1.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.10.

Ball (NYSE:BALL - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 6th. The company reported $0.76 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.69 by $0.07. Ball had a net margin of 4.18% and a return on equity of 15.41%. The company had revenue of $3.10 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.91 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.68 EPS. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 7.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts expect that Ball Corporation will post 3.48 EPS for the current year.

About Ball

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.