Bank of Montreal Can Has $14.58 Million Stake in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

Bank of Montreal Can trimmed its position in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 2.4% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 264,501 shares of the company’s stock after selling 6,583 shares during the period. Bank of Montreal Can owned approximately 0.09% of Ball worth $14,582,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Picton Mahoney Asset Management increased its stake in Ball by 68.9% in the 4th quarter. Picton Mahoney Asset Management now owns 522 shares of the company’s stock valued at $29,000 after buying an additional 213 shares during the last quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Ball by 328.4% in the 4th quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 664 shares of the company’s stock valued at $37,000 after acquiring an additional 509 shares in the last quarter. Hager Investment Management Services LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Ball in the fourth quarter valued at about $76,000. ORG Wealth Partners LLC raised its holdings in Ball by 298.9% during the fourth quarter. ORG Wealth Partners LLC now owns 1,428 shares of the company’s stock worth $79,000 after acquiring an additional 1,070 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Evermay Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in Ball by 35.1% during the fourth quarter. Evermay Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,743 shares of the company’s stock valued at $96,000 after purchasing an additional 453 shares during the last quarter. 86.51% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on BALL. Barclays dropped their price objective on Ball from $72.00 to $61.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Wells Fargo & Company reaffirmed an “underweight” rating and set a $49.00 price target (down from $56.00) on shares of Ball in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. Truist Financial decreased their price objective 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. Citigroup dropped their target price on shares of Ball from $69.00 to $59.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 6th. Finally, UBS Group reduced their price target on Ball from $55.00 to $54.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 7th. One equities research 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 stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $63.20.

Ball Stock Up 4.7 %

Shares of BALL opened at $48.12 on Friday. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $50.58 and its 200 day simple moving average is $56.48. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90, a quick ratio of 0.69 and a current ratio of 1.00. The firm has a market cap of $13.59 billion, a P/E ratio of 3.80, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 1.01. Ball Co. has a 52 week low of $43.51 and a 52 week high of $71.32.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.84 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.81 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $2.88 billion for 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%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down .8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.78 earnings per share. On average, analysts forecast that Ball Co. will post 3.48 earnings per share for the current year.

Ball declared that its board has approved a share repurchase program on Wednesday, January 29th that allows the company to buyback $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the company to repurchase up to 24.2% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are usually an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Ball Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced 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. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.66%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 3rd. Ball’s dividend payout ratio is currently 6.32%.

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.