Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) Shares Sold by Mirova US LLC

Mirova US LLC reduced its stake in shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 3.5% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 2,431,399 shares of the company’s stock after selling 87,598 shares during the quarter. Ball comprises approximately 1.6% of Mirova US LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 24th biggest position. Mirova US LLC’s holdings in Ball were worth $134,043,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Ball during the 4th quarter valued at about $94,861,000. FMR LLC grew its position in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 588,282 shares during the period. First Merchants Corp lifted its stake in Ball by 1,335.8% in the 4th quarter. First Merchants Corp now owns 619,205 shares of the company’s stock valued at $34,137,000 after buying an additional 576,078 shares in the last quarter. LBP AM SA lifted its stake in Ball by 124.4% in the 4th quarter. LBP AM SA now owns 587,099 shares of the company’s stock valued at $32,367,000 after buying an additional 325,497 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its stake in Ball by 4.7% in the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 6,954,876 shares of the company’s stock valued at $453,144,000 after buying an additional 309,587 shares in 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 recently weighed in on BALL. UBS Group decreased their price target on shares of Ball from $60.00 to $55.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Truist Financial decreased their target price 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. Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on shares of Ball from $75.00 to $70.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their target price on shares of Ball from $75.00 to $66.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, Robert W. Baird decreased their target price on shares of Ball from $70.00 to $63.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $64.64.

Ball Stock Up 0.8 %

Ball stock opened at $52.31 on Tuesday. Ball Co. has a fifty-two week low of $48.95 and a fifty-two week high of $71.32. 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 50 day moving average price of $52.60 and a 200 day moving average price of $58.71. The company has a market capitalization of $14.77 billion, a PE ratio of 4.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 0.99.

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

Ball Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 3rd were paid a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.53%. Ball’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 6.32%.

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