Ball Corporation $BALL Stake Increased by Bessemer Group Inc.

Bessemer Group Inc. increased its stake in Ball Corporation (NYSE:BALL) by 133.1% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 7,134 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 4,074 shares during the period. Bessemer Group Inc.’s holdings in Ball were worth $400,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in BALL. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its stake in Ball by 44.2% during the first quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 8,002,327 shares of the company’s stock valued at $416,681,000 after purchasing an additional 2,453,630 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. increased its stake in Ball by 5.1% during the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 4,370,274 shares of the company’s stock valued at $227,560,000 after purchasing an additional 210,838 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in Ball by 10.3% during the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,370,532 shares of the company’s stock valued at $175,480,000 after purchasing an additional 315,091 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp increased its stake in Ball by 0.7% during the first quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,046,342 shares of the company’s stock valued at $158,623,000 after purchasing an additional 19,921 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Mirova US LLC increased its stake in Ball by 4.9% during the second quarter. Mirova US LLC now owns 2,669,081 shares of the company’s stock valued at $149,709,000 after purchasing an additional 124,814 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 86.51% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on BALL shares. Citigroup reduced their price target on shares of Ball from $60.00 to $53.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, September 29th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price target on shares of Ball from $54.00 to $48.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 15th. UBS Group reduced their price target on shares of Ball from $61.00 to $55.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, October 6th. Raymond James Financial started coverage on shares of Ball in a report on Wednesday, October 15th. They set a “market perform” rating for the company. Finally, Bank of America reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $66.00 price target (down previously from $67.00) on shares of Ball in a report on Wednesday, July 9th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Ball presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $62.36.

Insider Activity at Ball

In other Ball news, Chairman Daniel William Fisher sold 3,400 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $51.55, for a total transaction of $175,270.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chairman owned 10,036 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $517,355.80. This represents a 25.31% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders own 0.81% of the company’s stock.

Ball Price Performance

Shares of Ball stock opened at $46.97 on Monday. 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 company’s 50-day moving average price is $49.64 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $52.85. Ball Corporation has a 52 week low of $43.51 and a 52 week high of $64.80. The stock has a market cap of $12.78 billion, a PE ratio of 24.34, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.09 and a beta of 1.09.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 5th. The company reported $0.90 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.87 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $3.34 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.10 billion. Ball had a return on equity of 16.81% and a net margin of 4.49%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.74 EPS. Ball has set its FY 2025 guidance at 3.550-3.650 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Ball Corporation will post 3.48 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ball Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 15th. Investors of record on Monday, December 1st will be paid a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 1st. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.7%. Ball’s payout ratio is presently 41.45%.

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.