United Services Automobile Association Buys New Stake in Ball Corporation $BALL

Key Points

• United Services Automobile Association acquired a stake in Ball Corporation, purchasing 6,792 shares valued at approximately $350,000 during the first quarter.
• Ball Corporation reported a net margin of 4.49% and exceeded earnings expectations with $0.90 EPS against the forecast of $0.87 for the last quarter.
• The company announced a quarterly dividend of $0.20 per share, which represents a 1.6% yield, and is set to be paid on September 16th to stockholders of record.

United Services Automobile Association acquired a new position in shares of Ball Corporation (NYSE:BALL - Free Report) in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund acquired 6,792 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $350,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of BALL. Cary Street Partners Investment Advisory LLC bought a new position in shares of Ball during the 1st quarter valued at about $32,000. Strengthening Families & Communities LLC raised its position in shares of Ball by 72.4% in the 1st quarter. Strengthening Families & Communities LLC now owns 707 shares of the company's stock worth $37,000 after acquiring an additional 297 shares in the last quarter. SVB Wealth LLC bought a new position in shares of Ball in the 1st quarter worth approximately $39,000. Whipplewood Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Ball by 764.9% in the 1st quarter. Whipplewood Advisors LLC now owns 813 shares of the company's stock worth $42,000 after acquiring an additional 719 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Federated Hermes Inc. increased its position in Ball by 40.4% during the 1st quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 1,311 shares of the company's stock valued at $68,000 after buying an additional 377 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.51% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have commented on the company. Citigroup lifted their target price on Ball from $55.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Thursday, July 3rd. Bank of America restated a "neutral" rating and issued a $66.00 price target (down from $67.00) on shares of Ball in a research note on Wednesday, July 9th. Royal Bank Of Canada lifted their target price on Ball from $69.00 to $70.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, August 7th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on Ball from $50.00 to $54.00 and gave the company an "underweight" rating in a research report on Friday, July 18th. Finally, Truist Financial raised their price target on Ball from $62.00 to $69.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, July 11th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $65.27.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Chairman Daniel William Fisher sold 3,400 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $51.55, for a total transaction of $175,270.00. Following the sale, the chairman directly owned 10,036 shares in the company, valued at $517,355.80. This trade represents a 25.31% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.57% of the company's stock.

Ball Trading Up 0.2%

Shares of BALL traded up $0.12 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $51.24. 1,995,081 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,159,074. The stock has a market cap of $13.94 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.01, a P/E/G ratio of 1.16 and a beta of 1.06. The stock's 50-day moving average is $54.93 and its two-hundred day moving average is $53.19. Ball Corporation has a 12 month low of $43.51 and a 12 month high of $68.12. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.23, a current ratio of 1.00 and a quick ratio of 0.67.

Ball (NYSE:BALL - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, August 5th. The company reported $0.90 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 return on equity of 16.81% and a net margin of 4.49%.Ball's revenue was up 12.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.74 earnings per share. Ball has set its FY 2025 guidance at 3.550-3.650 EPS. Research analysts forecast that Ball Corporation will post 3.48 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ball Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 16th. Investors of record on Tuesday, September 2nd will be given a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 2nd. Ball's dividend payout ratio is presently 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.