OLD National Bancorp IN Reduces Stock Position in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

OLD National Bancorp IN cut its stake in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 0.5% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 60,172 shares of the company’s stock after selling 319 shares during the period. OLD National Bancorp IN’s holdings in Ball were worth $3,317,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Peterson Financial Group Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Ball in the third quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Ball during the third quarter worth approximately $47,000. Quarry LP boosted its holdings in shares of Ball by 598.6% in the 2nd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 999 shares of the company’s stock valued at $60,000 after purchasing an additional 856 shares during the last quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group acquired a new position in shares of Ball in the 3rd quarter valued at $66,000. Finally, Farther Finance Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Ball by 29.1% in the 3rd quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 1,011 shares of the company’s stock valued at $69,000 after purchasing an additional 228 shares during the last quarter. 86.51% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Ball Stock Up 1.6 %

NYSE BALL opened at $56.23 on Friday. 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 company’s 50 day simple moving average is $56.77 and its 200 day simple moving average is $61.33. Ball Co. has a 12 month low of $51.96 and a 12 month high of $71.32. The company has a market capitalization of $16.78 billion, a P/E ratio of 4.24, a PEG ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 0.93.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last released its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The company reported $0.91 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.87 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $3.08 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.13 billion. Ball had a net margin of 34.05% and a return on equity of 17.46%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down .9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.83 earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect that Ball Co. will post 3.15 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ball Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Investors of record on Monday, March 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.42%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 3rd. Ball’s payout ratio is presently 6.03%.

Ball announced that its board has initiated a share buyback plan on Wednesday, January 29th that allows the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the company to purchase up to 24.2% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are usually a sign that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently commented on BALL. Morgan Stanley cut their target price on shares of Ball from $78.00 to $75.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Citigroup dropped their price target on shares of Ball from $69.00 to $59.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Truist Financial dropped their target price on shares of Ball from $78.00 to $73.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $75.00 price objective on shares of Ball in a research note on Monday, November 4th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company reaffirmed an “underweight” rating and issued a $49.00 target price (down from $56.00) on shares of Ball in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Ball has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $68.17.

About Ball

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.