Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) Shares Sold by National Pension Service

National Pension Service cut its holdings in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 7.3% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 478,948 shares of the company’s stock after selling 37,574 shares during the period. National Pension Service owned about 0.16% of Ball worth $26,404,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the business. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Ball by 4.7% in the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 6,954,876 shares of the company’s stock valued at $453,144,000 after buying an additional 309,587 shares during the period. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Ball by 15.4% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 4,418,570 shares of the company’s stock valued at $300,065,000 after buying an additional 588,282 shares during the period. M&G PLC boosted its holdings in shares of Ball by 5.2% in the 3rd quarter. M&G PLC now owns 790,137 shares of the company’s stock valued at $53,729,000 after buying an additional 38,714 shares during the period. Janus Henderson Group PLC boosted its holdings in shares of Ball by 14.1% in the 3rd quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 707,279 shares of the company’s stock valued at $48,030,000 after buying an additional 87,577 shares during the period. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Ball by 0.4% in the 3rd quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 692,380 shares of the company’s stock valued at $47,020,000 after buying an additional 2,762 shares during the period. 86.51% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Ball Stock Up 1.2 %

BALL stock opened at $52.71 on Friday. Ball Co. has a 52 week low of $48.95 and a 52 week high of $71.32. The company has a market capitalization of $14.91 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 4.16, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 0.94. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $53.27 and its two-hundred day moving average is $59.61. The company has a current ratio of 1.00, a quick ratio of 0.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.84 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.81 by $0.03. Ball had a net margin of 33.98% and a return on equity of 16.17%. The company had revenue of $2.88 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.92 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.78 EPS. Ball’s revenue was down .8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts forecast that Ball Co. will post 3.48 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ball announced that its board has approved a share repurchase program on Wednesday, January 29th that allows the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the company to purchase up to 24.2% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are often a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Ball Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Investors of record on Monday, March 3rd will be issued a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.52%. Ball’s payout ratio is currently 6.32%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently weighed in on BALL. Truist Financial cut their price objective on shares of Ball from $78.00 to $73.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Barclays cut their price objective on shares of Ball from $72.00 to $61.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Robert W. Baird cut their price objective on shares of Ball from $70.00 to $63.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Wells Fargo & Company reiterated an “underweight” rating and issued a $49.00 price objective (down from $56.00) on shares of Ball in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. Finally, Mizuho upgraded shares of Ball from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $67.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $65.25.

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.