Ball Corporation $BALL Shares Sold by HighTower Advisors LLC

HighTower Advisors LLC lessened its stake in Ball Corporation (NYSE:BALL) by 42.7% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 17,966 shares of the company’s stock after selling 13,404 shares during the quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC’s holdings in Ball were worth $935,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its position in shares of Ball by 44.2% during the 1st quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 8,002,327 shares of the company’s stock valued at $416,681,000 after buying an additional 2,453,630 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. raised its stake in Ball by 5.1% during the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 4,370,274 shares of the company’s stock worth $227,560,000 after acquiring an additional 210,838 shares during the period. London Co. of Virginia raised its stake in Ball by 61.1% during the fourth quarter. London Co. of Virginia now owns 3,054,393 shares of the company’s stock worth $168,389,000 after acquiring an additional 1,158,668 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp raised its stake in Ball by 15.1% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,026,421 shares of the company’s stock worth $166,847,000 after acquiring an additional 396,633 shares during the period. Finally, UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC raised its stake in Ball by 10.7% during the fourth quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 2,147,711 shares of the company’s stock worth $118,403,000 after acquiring an additional 207,244 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.51% of the company’s stock.

Ball Price Performance

NYSE BALL opened at $52.32 on Thursday. Ball Corporation has a 52 week low of $43.51 and a 52 week high of $68.12. The company has a current ratio of 1.00, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.23. The stock has a market cap of $14.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.11, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.20 and a beta of 1.08. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $56.38 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $53.10.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, August 5th. The company reported $0.90 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 quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.74 EPS. Ball’s quarterly revenue was up 12.8% on a year-over-year basis. Ball has set its FY 2025 guidance at 3.550-3.650 EPS. Analysts forecast that Ball Corporation will post 3.48 EPS for the current year.

Ball Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 16th. Stockholders 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 dividend yield of 1.5%. Ball’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 41.45%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Mizuho increased their price objective on shares of Ball from $60.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 15th. Barclays dropped their price objective on shares of Ball from $61.00 to $57.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, May 14th. Bank of America reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $66.00 price objective (down previously from $67.00) on shares of Ball in a research note on Wednesday, July 9th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of Ball from $50.00 to $54.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Friday, July 18th. Finally, Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of Ball from $55.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 3rd. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $65.27.

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.