Paloma Partners Management Co Boosts Holdings in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

Paloma Partners Management Co raised its stake in shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 38.7% in the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 14,000 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 3,909 shares during the period. Paloma Partners Management Co’s holdings in Ball were worth $951,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the stock. Tidal Investments LLC raised its position in Ball by 57.1% during the first quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 9,932 shares of the company’s stock valued at $669,000 after acquiring an additional 3,610 shares in the last quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers lifted its stake in shares of Ball by 307.0% in the 1st quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 93,708 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,312,000 after purchasing an additional 70,685 shares during the period. Cetera Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Ball by 48.1% during the first quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC now owns 21,561 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,452,000 after buying an additional 7,007 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its position in Ball by 38.2% during the second quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,508 shares of the company’s stock valued at $211,000 after buying an additional 969 shares during the period. Finally, DNB Asset Management AS grew its position in Ball by 2.5% during the second quarter. DNB Asset Management AS now owns 55,466 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,329,000 after buying an additional 1,378 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.51% of the company’s stock.

Ball Trading Up 1.4 %

Shares of BALL stock opened at $62.83 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.09, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79. Ball Co. has a twelve month low of $54.06 and a twelve month high of $71.32. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $63.64 and its 200-day moving average price is $64.04. The stock has a market cap of $18.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 4.74, a PEG ratio of 1.55 and a beta of 0.90.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The company reported $0.91 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.87 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $3.08 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.13 billion. Ball had a net margin of 34.05% and a return on equity of 17.46%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down .9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.83 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that Ball Co. will post 3.15 earnings per share for the current year.

Ball Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 2nd will be paid a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.27%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 2nd. Ball’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 6.03%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently issued reports on BALL. Robert W. Baird raised shares of Ball from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $70.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, August 14th. Baird R W raised shares of Ball from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 14th. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Ball from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $69.00 to $78.00 in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $75.00 price objective on shares of Ball in a report on Monday, November 4th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company reduced their target price on Ball from $63.00 to $61.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, November 1st. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Ball currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $70.75.

Ball 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.