W.H. Cornerstone Investments Inc. Decreases Stock Position in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

W.H. Cornerstone Investments Inc. reduced its position in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 18.4% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 4,572 shares of the company’s stock after selling 1,030 shares during the period. W.H. Cornerstone Investments Inc.’s holdings in Ball were worth $252,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. First Merchants Corp raised its holdings in Ball by 1,335.8% in the 4th quarter. First Merchants Corp now owns 619,205 shares of the company’s stock worth $34,137,000 after acquiring an additional 576,078 shares during the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp raised its holdings in Ball by 3,599.7% in the 4th quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 317,321 shares of the company’s stock worth $17,494,000 after acquiring an additional 308,744 shares during the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC raised its holdings in Ball by 10.0% in the 4th quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 17,135 shares of the company’s stock worth $933,000 after acquiring an additional 1,559 shares during the last quarter. Loring Wolcott & Coolidge Fiduciary Advisors LLP MA raised its holdings in Ball by 531,933.3% in the 4th quarter. Loring Wolcott & Coolidge Fiduciary Advisors LLP MA now owns 47,883 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,707,000 after acquiring an additional 47,874 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Empowered Funds LLC grew its position in Ball by 10.9% in the 4th quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 5,577 shares of the company’s stock worth $307,000 after purchasing an additional 546 shares during the period. 86.51% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have commented on the stock. Barclays cut their target price on shares of Ball from $72.00 to $61.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Royal Bank of Canada cut their target price on shares of Ball from $75.00 to $66.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Truist Financial cut 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. Robert W. Baird cut their target price on shares of Ball from $70.00 to $63.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, Citigroup cut their target price on shares of Ball from $69.00 to $59.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 6th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $65.25.

Ball Trading Down 0.5 %

Shares of Ball stock opened at $49.32 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $14.72 billion, a P/E ratio of 3.90, a P/E/G ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a current ratio of 1.00. The company has a fifty day moving average of $54.80 and a 200 day moving average of $60.66. Ball Co. has a fifty-two week low of $49.00 and a fifty-two week high of $71.32.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.84 earnings per share 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 net margin of 33.98% and a return on equity of 16.17%. Ball’s quarterly revenue was down .8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.78 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Ball Co. will post 3.54 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ball Dividend Announcement

The company 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. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.62%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 3rd. Ball’s dividend payout ratio is currently 6.32%.

Ball announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock repurchase program on Wednesday, January 29th that authorizes the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the company to reacquire up to 24.2% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are often an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Ball Company 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.