Lazard Freres Gestion S.A.S. Trims Position in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

Lazard Freres Gestion S.A.S. lessened its stake in shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 17.2% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 807,405 shares of the company’s stock after selling 167,429 shares during the period. Lazard Freres Gestion S.A.S. owned 0.27% of Ball worth $44,512,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Franklin Resources Inc. raised its holdings 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 during the period. FMR LLC raised its holdings in Ball by 15.4% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 4,418,570 shares of the company’s stock valued at $300,065,000 after buying an additional 588,282 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in Ball by 2.0% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,891,046 shares of the company’s stock valued at $104,253,000 after buying an additional 36,809 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in Ball in the 4th quarter valued at about $94,861,000. Finally, AMG National Trust Bank raised its holdings in Ball by 13.2% in the 4th quarter. AMG National Trust Bank now owns 1,388,227 shares of the company’s stock valued at $76,339,000 after buying an additional 162,105 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.51% of the company’s stock.

Ball Stock Performance

Shares of Ball stock opened at $51.30 on Thursday. Ball Co. has a one year low of $48.95 and a one year high of $71.32. The company has a market cap of $14.48 billion, a PE ratio of 4.05, a P/E/G ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 0.99. 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 business has a 50-day simple moving average of $52.75 and a 200-day simple moving average of $58.99.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.84 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.81 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $2.88 billion during 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 business’s revenue for the quarter was down .8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.78 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Ball Co. will post 3.48 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ball Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Investors of record on Monday, March 3rd will be issued a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.56%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 3rd. Ball’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 6.32%.

Ball declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback plan on Wednesday, January 29th that allows the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the company to repurchase up to 24.2% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are typically a sign that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

BALL has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company restated an “underweight” rating and issued a $49.00 price objective (down from $56.00) on shares of Ball in a report on Thursday, January 16th. Barclays cut their price target 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. Morgan Stanley cut their price target 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. UBS Group cut 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. Finally, Truist Financial cut their price target 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. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Ball presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $64.64.

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.