Schroder Investment Management Group Sells 6,168 Shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

Schroder Investment Management Group lessened its position in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 0.3% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,435,310 shares of the company’s stock after selling 6,168 shares during the period. Schroder Investment Management Group owned 0.82% of Ball worth $133,918,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of BALL. FMR LLC increased its holdings in Ball by 15.4% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 4,418,570 shares of the company’s stock valued at $300,065,000 after purchasing an additional 588,282 shares during the period. D.A. Davidson & CO. increased its stake in shares of Ball by 55.7% during the third quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO. now owns 8,328 shares of the company’s stock valued at $566,000 after buying an additional 2,978 shares during the period. Glenmede Trust Co. NA raised its holdings in shares of Ball by 4.9% during the third quarter. Glenmede Trust Co. NA now owns 28,910 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,963,000 after acquiring an additional 1,361 shares in the last quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank raised its holdings in Ball by 25.6% in the 3rd quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 89,984 shares of the company’s stock worth $6,111,000 after purchasing an additional 18,327 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Public Sector Pension Investment Board lifted its position in shares of Ball by 5.1% in the 3rd quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 12,317 shares of the company’s stock worth $836,000 after purchasing an additional 600 shares during the period. 86.51% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have commented on BALL. Robert W. Baird lowered their price objective on shares of Ball from $70.00 to $63.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on Ball from $75.00 to $70.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Mizuho upgraded Ball from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $67.00 price objective for the company in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. UBS Group decreased their price target on shares of Ball from $60.00 to $55.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, Truist Financial dropped their price objective on shares of Ball from $78.00 to $73.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 6th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, five have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $63.30.

Ball Trading Down 1.2 %

NYSE:BALL opened at $51.45 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $14.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 4.06, a PEG ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 0.99. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $52.18 and its 200-day moving average price is $57.88. Ball Co. has a 52 week low of $48.95 and a 52 week high of $71.32. The company has a quick ratio of 0.69, a current ratio of 1.00 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90.

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

Ball Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 3rd were issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.56%. Ball’s payout ratio is 6.32%.

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

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.