Mariner LLC Boosts Stake in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

Mariner LLC raised its position in shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 2.7% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 1,198,281 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 31,001 shares during the quarter. Mariner LLC owned about 0.40% of Ball worth $66,059,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Everence Capital Management Inc. bought a new stake in Ball during the fourth quarter worth approximately $774,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in Ball during the 4th quarter valued at $94,861,000. Loring Wolcott & Coolidge Fiduciary Advisors LLP MA lifted its position 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 buying an additional 47,874 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in Ball by 2.0% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,891,046 shares of the company’s stock worth $104,253,000 after buying an additional 36,809 shares during the period. Finally, Aviva PLC increased its position in Ball by 63.4% during the fourth quarter. Aviva PLC now owns 523,765 shares of the company’s stock valued at $28,875,000 after acquiring an additional 203,298 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 86.51% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently commented on BALL shares. Barclays dropped their price target on shares of Ball from $72.00 to $61.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Morgan Stanley reduced their price target on Ball from $75.00 to $70.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Truist Financial dropped their price objective on Ball from $78.00 to $73.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, January 6th. Wells Fargo & Company reiterated an “underweight” rating and set a $49.00 target price (down from $56.00) on shares of Ball in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. Finally, Citigroup reduced their price target 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, five have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $63.20.

Ball Price Performance

Shares of BALL opened at $48.81 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $13.78 billion, a PE ratio of 3.86, a PEG ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $50.53 and a 200-day moving average price of $56.27. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90, a quick ratio of 0.69 and a current ratio of 1.00. Ball Co. has a fifty-two week low of $43.51 and a fifty-two week high of $71.32.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.84 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.81 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $2.88 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.92 billion. Ball had a return on equity of 16.17% and a net margin of 33.98%. The business’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. Equities analysts predict that Ball Co. will post 3.48 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ball Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 3rd were given a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.64%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 3rd. Ball’s payout ratio is 6.32%.

Ball announced that its board has approved a share buyback plan on Wednesday, January 29th that permits the company to buyback $4.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the company to reacquire up to 24.2% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are usually a sign that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

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.