Alliancebernstein L.P. Decreases Stock Position in Ball Corporation $BALL

Alliancebernstein L.P. cut its stake in Ball Corporation (NYSE:BALL) by 1.1% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 320,564 shares of the company’s stock after selling 3,634 shares during the quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. owned about 0.12% of Ball worth $16,692,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of BALL. Cary Street Partners Investment Advisory LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Ball in the first quarter valued at $32,000. Strengthening Families & Communities LLC grew its holdings in Ball by 72.4% during the 1st quarter. Strengthening Families & Communities LLC now owns 707 shares of the company’s stock valued at $37,000 after purchasing an additional 297 shares during the last quarter. SVB Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in Ball in the 1st quarter worth about $39,000. Whipplewood Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Ball by 764.9% in the first quarter. Whipplewood Advisors LLC now owns 813 shares of the company’s stock worth $42,000 after purchasing an additional 719 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Federated Hermes Inc. lifted its stake in Ball by 40.4% in the first quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 1,311 shares of the company’s stock worth $68,000 after purchasing an additional 377 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 86.51% of the company’s stock.

Ball Stock Performance

Shares of Ball stock opened at $51.12 on Friday. 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’s fifty day moving average price is $55.08 and its 200-day moving average price is $53.18. The firm has a market cap of $13.91 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.49, a P/E/G ratio of 1.14 and a beta of 1.06. Ball Corporation has a 12 month low of $43.51 and a 12 month high of $68.12.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 net margin of 4.49% and a return on equity of 16.81%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.74 earnings per share. Ball has set its FY 2025 guidance at 3.550-3.650 EPS. On average, equities research analysts expect that Ball Corporation will post 3.48 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ball Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 16th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 2nd will be paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, September 2nd. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.6%. Ball’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 41.45%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the company. Citigroup upped their target price on Ball from $55.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 3rd. Bank of America reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $66.00 price objective (down previously from $67.00) on shares of Ball in a research report on Wednesday, July 9th. Mizuho lifted their target price on Ball from $60.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 15th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of Ball from $50.00 to $54.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Friday, July 18th. Finally, UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Ball from $54.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 9th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $65.27.

Insider Transactions at Ball

In related news, Chairman Daniel William Fisher sold 3,400 shares of Ball stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $51.55, for a total transaction of $175,270.00. Following the transaction, the chairman directly owned 10,036 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $517,355.80. This trade represents a 25.31% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. 0.81% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.