Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. Makes New Investment in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. purchased a new stake in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL - Free Report) during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm purchased 13,389 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $909,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Peterson Financial Group Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Ball in the 3rd quarter valued at $30,000. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Ball in the third quarter valued at approximately $47,000. Friedenthal Financial acquired a new stake in shares of Ball in the second quarter valued at approximately $47,000. Brooklyn Investment Group acquired a new stake in Ball during the 3rd quarter worth $66,000. Finally, Quarry LP increased its position in Ball by 598.6% in the 2nd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 999 shares of the company's stock valued at $60,000 after acquiring an additional 856 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.51% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

BALL has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on shares of Ball from $63.00 to $61.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Robert W. Baird upgraded shares of Ball from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $70.00 target price for the company in a research report on Wednesday, August 14th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an "outperform" rating and set a $75.00 price objective on shares of Ball in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Mizuho lowered their price objective on Ball from $69.00 to $67.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upgraded Ball from an "equal weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $69.00 to $78.00 in a report on Wednesday, September 4th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Ball presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $70.75.

Ball Price Performance

Shares of BALL traded up $0.65 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $57.76. The stock had a trading volume of 1,283,608 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,822,796. Ball Co. has a 52 week low of $54.06 and a 52 week high of $71.32. The company's fifty day moving average is $62.95 and its two-hundred day moving average is $63.69. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 1.09 and a quick ratio of 0.82. The stock has a market capitalization of $17.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 4.31, a P/E/G ratio of 1.43 and a beta of 0.91.

Ball (NYSE:BALL - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The company reported $0.91 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.87 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $3.08 billion during 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 for the quarter was down .9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.83 earnings per share. On average, analysts anticipate that Ball Co. will post 3.15 EPS for the current year.

Ball Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 2nd will be given a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 2nd. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.39%. Ball's payout ratio is presently 6.03%.

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.