Douglass Winthrop Advisors LLC Trims Stock Position in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

Douglass Winthrop Advisors LLC trimmed its stake in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 11.8% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 75,724 shares of the company’s stock after selling 10,116 shares during the period. Douglass Winthrop Advisors LLC’s holdings in Ball were worth $4,175,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of BALL. Everence Capital Management Inc. bought a new stake in Ball during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $774,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Ball in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $94,861,000. Estate Counselors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Ball during the third quarter valued at approximately $1,825,000. Loring Wolcott & Coolidge Fiduciary Advisors LLP MA grew its stake in Ball by 531,933.3% in the fourth quarter. Loring Wolcott & Coolidge Fiduciary Advisors LLP MA now owns 47,883 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,707,000 after purchasing an additional 47,874 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in Ball by 2.0% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,891,046 shares of the company’s stock worth $104,253,000 after purchasing an additional 36,809 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 86.51% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

BALL has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Truist Financial reduced 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. Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on shares of Ball from $75.00 to $70.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Wells Fargo & Company reissued an “underweight” rating and issued a $49.00 price target (down from $56.00) on shares of Ball in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. Barclays reduced their price objective on Ball from $72.00 to $61.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada dropped their target price on Ball from $75.00 to $66.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 6th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Ball has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $64.64.

Ball Price Performance

NYSE BALL opened at $51.61 on Friday. Ball Co. has a one year low of $48.95 and a one year high of $71.32. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $52.49 and a 200 day moving average of $58.53. 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 company has a market capitalization of $14.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 4.08, a PEG ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 0.99.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.84 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.81 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $2.88 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.92 billion. Ball had a net margin of 33.98% and a return on equity of 16.17%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down .8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.78 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Ball Co. will post 3.48 EPS for the current year.

Ball Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 3rd were paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.55%. Ball’s dividend payout ratio is presently 6.32%.

Ball announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback program on Wednesday, January 29th that permits the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the company to reacquire up to 24.2% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are typically a sign that the company’s board of directors 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.