Keybank National Association OH Trims Stock Holdings in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

Keybank National Association OH reduced its holdings in shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 0.6% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 72,129 shares of the company’s stock after selling 419 shares during the period. Keybank National Association OH’s holdings in Ball were worth $3,976,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of BALL. FMR LLC grew its stake in Ball by 15.4% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 4,418,570 shares of the company’s stock worth $300,065,000 after acquiring an additional 588,282 shares in the last quarter. First Merchants Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Ball by 1,335.8% in the fourth quarter. First Merchants Corp now owns 619,205 shares of the company’s stock valued at $34,137,000 after purchasing an additional 576,078 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. grew its stake in Ball by 4.7% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 6,954,876 shares of the company’s stock worth $453,144,000 after purchasing an additional 309,587 shares in the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp increased its holdings in Ball by 3,599.7% during the 4th quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 317,321 shares of the company’s stock worth $17,494,000 after purchasing an additional 308,744 shares during the period. Finally, KBC Group NV raised its position in Ball by 402.1% during the 3rd quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 265,261 shares of the company’s stock valued at $18,014,000 after purchasing an additional 212,430 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.51% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on BALL. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price target on Ball from $75.00 to $66.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. 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 research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Truist Financial cut their target price 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. UBS Group lowered their price target on shares of Ball from $60.00 to $55.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, Citigroup dropped their price objective 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. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $64.64.

Ball Price Performance

Shares of BALL opened at $51.92 on Thursday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $53.01 and a two-hundred day moving average of $59.37. The company has a market cap of $14.68 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 4.10, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 0.94. 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 Co. has a twelve month low of $48.95 and a twelve month high of $71.32.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last posted 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. Ball had a net margin of 33.98% and a return on equity of 16.17%. The business had revenue of $2.88 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.92 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.78 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down .8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts predict that Ball Co. will post 3.48 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ball Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Investors of record on Monday, March 3rd will be paid a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.54%. Ball’s dividend payout ratio is presently 6.32%.

Ball announced that its board has approved a stock buyback program on Wednesday, January 29th that permits the company to buyback $4.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the company to repurchase up to 24.2% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are generally an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are 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.