Short Interest in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) Increases By 8.4%

Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL – Get Rating) saw a large growth in short interest in February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 16,520,000 shares, a growth of 8.4% from the February 13th total of 15,240,000 shares. Currently, 5.3% of the company’s stock are sold short. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 1,730,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 9.5 days.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently issued reports on BALL shares. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on Ball from $46.00 to $51.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 3rd. Citigroup boosted their price target on Ball from $51.00 to $54.00 in a research note on Wednesday, January 4th. UBS Group dropped their price target on Ball from $64.00 to $58.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, December 15th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on Ball from $55.00 to $61.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 7th. Finally, Mizuho boosted their price target on Ball from $53.00 to $58.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, February 3rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $58.31.

Insider Activity at Ball

In related news, Director John A. Hayes sold 100,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $58.40, for a total transaction of $5,840,000.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 480,552 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $28,064,236.80. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 1.40% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ball

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec acquired a new position in Ball in the 3rd quarter worth about $704,000. Metropolitan Life Insurance Co NY acquired a new position in Ball in the 3rd quarter worth about $904,000. Nuveen Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in Ball in the 3rd quarter worth about $81,141,000. Advisors Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Ball during the third quarter valued at approximately $4,197,000. Finally, UBS Asset Management Americas Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Ball during the third quarter valued at approximately $72,267,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.65% of the company’s stock.

Ball Stock Up 0.0 %

Shares of BALL opened at $52.12 on Friday. Ball has a 52 week low of $46.00 and a 52 week high of $94.79. The company has a quick ratio of 0.47, a current ratio of 0.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.14. The company has a market capitalization of $16.39 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.37, a PEG ratio of 3.44 and a beta of 0.78. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $56.44 and its 200-day moving average price is $53.93.

Ball (NYSE:BALL – Get Rating) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 2nd. The company reported $0.44 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.54 by ($0.10). The company had revenue of $3.55 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.69 billion. Ball had a return on equity of 24.47% and a net margin of 4.68%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 3.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.97 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Ball will post 3.08 EPS for the current year.

Ball Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 15th. Investors of record on Wednesday, March 1st were issued a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 28th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.53%. Ball’s payout ratio is 35.87%.

Ball Company Profile

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Ball Corp. provides metal packaging for beverages, foods, and household products. It operates through the following business segments: Beverage Packaging North and Central America, Beverage Packaging South America, Beverage Packaging Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), and Aerospace. The Beverage Packaging North and Central America segment includes multi-year supply contracts to fillers of carbonated soft drinks, beer, energy drinks, and other beverages.