Ball Corporation (NYSE:BALL) Shares Acquired by DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale

DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale grew its holdings in Ball Corporation (NYSE:BALL - Free Report) by 359.3% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,184,629 shares of the company's stock after purchasing an additional 926,728 shares during the period. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale owned approximately 0.42% of Ball worth $60,299,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Ball during the 4th quarter valued at $190,105,000. London Co. of Virginia lifted 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 purchasing an additional 1,158,668 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. lifted its position in shares of Ball by 25.3% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 4,159,436 shares of the company's stock worth $229,310,000 after purchasing an additional 840,357 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its position in shares of Ball by 11.6% in the 4th quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 7,758,604 shares of the company's stock worth $427,732,000 after purchasing an additional 803,728 shares during the period. Finally, Alyeska Investment Group L.P. purchased a new stake in shares of Ball in the 4th quarter worth about $30,883,000. Institutional investors own 86.51% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

BALL has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Royal Bank Of Canada lifted their price target on shares of Ball from $62.00 to $63.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 8th. UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of Ball from $54.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Wednesday. Barclays lowered their price target on shares of Ball from $61.00 to $57.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, May 14th. Mizuho lowered their price target on shares of Ball from $63.00 to $58.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 15th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of Ball from $44.00 to $50.00 and gave the company an "underweight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 7th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $62.36.

Ball Stock Down 1.3%

Shares of NYSE:BALL traded down $0.77 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $57.99. The company's stock had a trading volume of 1,736,718 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,221,779. Ball Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $43.51 and a fifty-two week high of $68.12. The company has a market capitalization of $16.09 billion, a PE ratio of 34.52, a P/E/G ratio of 1.57 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. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $54.43 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $52.70.

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

Ball Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 2nd were paid a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.38%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 2nd. Ball's payout ratio is 47.62%.

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.