Swiss National Bank Reduces Stock Position in Ball Corporation (NYSE:BALL)

Key Points

• Swiss National Bank reduced its stake in Ball Corporation by 1.9%, now owning approximately 0.30% of the company worth $43.8 million.
• Ball's quarterly earnings exceeded expectations with an EPS of $0.90, surpassing the consensus estimate by $0.03, and reporting a 12.8% revenue increase year-over-year.
• The company declared a quarterly dividend of $0.20 per share, set to be paid on September 16th, with a current dividend yield of 1.5%.

Swiss National Bank lowered its position in shares of Ball Corporation (NYSE:BALL - Free Report) by 1.9% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 841,588 shares of the company's stock after selling 16,100 shares during the period. Swiss National Bank owned 0.30% of Ball worth $43,821,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Cary Street Partners Investment Advisory LLC acquired a new position in Ball in the first quarter valued at $32,000. Whipplewood Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Ball by 764.9% in the first quarter. Whipplewood Advisors LLC now owns 813 shares of the company's stock valued at $42,000 after acquiring an additional 719 shares in the last quarter. Parvin Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in Ball in the fourth quarter valued at $70,000. Federated Hermes Inc. boosted its stake in Ball by 40.4% in the first quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 1,311 shares of the company's stock valued at $68,000 after acquiring an additional 377 shares in the last quarter. 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 in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.51% of the company's stock.

Ball Stock Performance

NYSE BALL traded up $0.19 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $53.83. 1,398,771 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,517,731. The company has a market cap of $14.65 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.89, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 1.08. Ball Corporation has a 12-month low of $43.51 and a 12-month high of $68.12. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $56.72 and a 200 day moving average of $53.13. The company has a quick ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 1.00 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.23.

Ball (NYSE:BALL - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 5th. The company reported $0.90 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.87 by $0.03. Ball had a net margin of 4.49% and a return on equity of 16.81%. The firm had revenue of $3.34 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $3.10 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.74 earnings per share. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 12.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Ball Corporation will post 3.48 earnings per share for the current year.

Ball Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 16th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 2nd will be issued a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 2nd. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.5%. Ball's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 41.45%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have issued reports on the stock. Royal Bank Of Canada upped their price objective on shares of Ball from $69.00 to $70.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, August 7th. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Ball from $54.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 9th. Loop Capital reduced their target price on shares of Ball from $83.00 to $78.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, May 7th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of Ball from $50.00 to $54.00 and gave the company an "underweight" rating in a report on Friday, July 18th. Finally, Barclays reduced their target price 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. 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 company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $65.27.

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.