Peterson Financial Group Inc. Takes $30,000 Position in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

Peterson Financial Group Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 448 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $30,000.

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of BALL. Empowered Funds LLC lifted its position in Ball by 26.9% in the first quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 5,051 shares of the company’s stock valued at $340,000 after purchasing an additional 1,071 shares during the period. US Bancorp DE lifted its holdings in shares of Ball by 1.7% in the 1st quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 16,810 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,133,000 after buying an additional 288 shares during the period. Dorsey & Whitney Trust CO LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Ball in the first quarter valued at approximately $222,000. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Ball by 0.8% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 35,855,312 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,415,214,000 after acquiring an additional 267,479 shares during the period. Finally, Ameritas Investment Partners Inc. raised its position in Ball by 29.6% in the first quarter. Ameritas Investment Partners Inc. now owns 32,551 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,193,000 after acquiring an additional 7,436 shares in the last quarter. 86.51% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

BALL has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Robert W. Baird raised shares of Ball from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $70.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, August 14th. Baird R W upgraded shares of Ball from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 14th. Citigroup lifted their price target on shares of Ball from $66.00 to $69.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. UBS Group boosted their price target on Ball from $56.00 to $59.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 6th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on Ball from $63.00 to $61.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, November 1st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Ball has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $70.75.

Ball Price Performance

NYSE:BALL opened at $60.92 on Friday. Ball Co. has a 12-month low of $51.62 and a 12-month high of $71.32. The firm has a market cap of $18.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 4.59, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.53 and a beta of 0.90. The company’s 50-day moving average is $64.51 and its two-hundred day moving average is $64.61. 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 (NYSE:BALL) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The company reported $0.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.87 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $3.08 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.13 billion. Ball had a net margin of 34.05% and a return on equity of 17.46%. Ball’s revenue was down .9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.83 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that Ball Co. will post 3.15 EPS for the current year.

Ball Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 2nd will be given a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.31%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 2nd. Ball’s dividend payout ratio is currently 6.03%.

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.