Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) Shares Bought by Heartland Advisors Inc.

Heartland Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 7.4% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 287,167 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 19,805 shares during the quarter. Heartland Advisors Inc. owned approximately 0.10% of Ball worth $15,832,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Everence Capital Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Ball during the 4th quarter worth approximately $774,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in Ball during the fourth quarter valued at $94,861,000. Loring Wolcott & Coolidge Fiduciary Advisors LLP MA raised its position in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 47,874 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Ball by 2.0% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,891,046 shares of the company’s stock worth $104,253,000 after acquiring an additional 36,809 shares in the last quarter. Finally, VisionPoint Advisory Group LLC grew its position in shares of Ball by 99.5% during the 4th quarter. VisionPoint Advisory Group LLC now owns 37,719 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,053,000 after acquiring an additional 18,809 shares during the period. 86.51% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Ball Trading Up 1.6 %

NYSE:BALL opened at $52.11 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $52.24 and a 200 day moving average price of $58.07. The company has a current ratio of 1.00, a quick ratio of 0.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90. Ball Co. has a 12-month low of $48.95 and a 12-month high of $71.32. The firm has a market cap of $14.71 billion, a PE ratio of 4.12, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 0.99.

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

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

Ball Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 3rd were issued a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.54%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 3rd. Ball’s payout ratio is currently 6.32%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

BALL has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Robert W. Baird dropped their price objective on Ball from $70.00 to $63.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Mizuho raised shares of Ball from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $67.00 price target for the company in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. Morgan Stanley cut their target price on shares of Ball from $75.00 to $70.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Truist Financial lowered their price objective on Ball from $78.00 to $73.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 6th. Finally, Barclays decreased their target price on shares of Ball from $72.00 to $61.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $63.30.

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.