135,260 Shares in Ball Corporation $BALL Acquired by Estate Counselors LLC

Key Points

• Estate Counselors LLC purchased 135,260 shares of Ball Corporation, valued at approximately $7,043,000, representing around 0.7% of their portfolio.
• Prominent analysts have raised their price targets on Ball, with Mizuho setting a new target of $68.00 and Wells Fargo at $54.00, showing varied outlooks with ratings from "buy" to "underweight."
• Ball recently declared a quarterly dividend of $0.20 per share, with a dividend yield of 1.5%, scheduled for payment on September 16th.

Estate Counselors LLC acquired a new position in Ball Corporation (NYSE:BALL - Free Report) in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 135,260 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $7,043,000. Ball accounts for 0.7% of Estate Counselors LLC's holdings, making the stock its 18th largest holding.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Erste Asset Management GmbH bought a new position in shares of Ball during the first quarter valued at approximately $319,000. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. increased its stake in shares of Ball by 22.1% during the first quarter. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. now owns 84,503 shares of the company's stock valued at $4,399,000 after purchasing an additional 15,300 shares in the last quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP increased its stake in shares of Ball by 5.6% during the first quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP now owns 58,537 shares of the company's stock valued at $3,048,000 after purchasing an additional 3,115 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in shares of Ball by 5.4% during the first quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,318,054 shares of the company's stock valued at $68,631,000 after purchasing an additional 67,285 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Qtron Investments LLC increased its stake in shares of Ball by 19.1% during the first quarter. Qtron Investments LLC now owns 17,796 shares of the company's stock valued at $927,000 after purchasing an additional 2,856 shares in the last quarter. 86.51% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Ball Stock Up 1.9%

Shares of BALL traded up $0.9930 on Friday, hitting $53.7030. 2,529,319 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,662,197. The company has a market capitalization of $14.62 billion, a PE ratio of 27.83, a P/E/G ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 1.08. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.23, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a current ratio of 1.00. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $56.56 and a 200 day simple moving average of $53.08. Ball Corporation has a one year low of $43.51 and a one year high of $68.12.

Ball (NYSE:BALL - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 5th. The company reported $0.90 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.87 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $3.34 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.10 billion. Ball had a net margin of 4.49% and a return on equity of 16.81%. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 12.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.74 earnings per share. Ball has set its FY 2025 guidance at 3.550-3.650 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Ball Corporation will post 3.48 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ball Announces Dividend

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

BALL has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Bank of America reaffirmed a "neutral" rating and set a $66.00 target price (down previously from $67.00) on shares of Ball in a research note on Wednesday, July 9th. Citigroup raised their target price on shares of Ball from $55.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 3rd. UBS Group raised their target price 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. Mizuho raised their target price on shares of Ball from $60.00 to $68.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 15th. Finally, Loop Capital cut their price target on shares of Ball from $83.00 to $78.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, May 7th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Ball currently has a consensus 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.