Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) Shares Purchased by Lbp Am Sa

Lbp Am Sa boosted its stake in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 124.4% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 587,099 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 325,497 shares during the period. Lbp Am Sa’s holdings in Ball were worth $32,367,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in BALL. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Ball by 49.2% in the 4th quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 4,872 shares of the company’s stock valued at $269,000 after purchasing an additional 1,606 shares in the last quarter. Natural Investments LLC purchased a new stake in Ball in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $1,249,000. Independent Advisor Alliance boosted its holdings in Ball by 16.8% in the 4th quarter. Independent Advisor Alliance now owns 4,478 shares of the company’s stock valued at $247,000 after purchasing an additional 644 shares in the last quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Ball by 5.1% in the 4th quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 41,952 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,313,000 after purchasing an additional 2,048 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank boosted its holdings in Ball by 1.9% in the 4th quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 91,692 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,055,000 after purchasing an additional 1,708 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.51% of the company’s stock.

Ball Trading Down 0.7 %

Shares of Ball stock opened at $50.93 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90, a current ratio of 1.00 and a quick ratio of 0.69. Ball Co. has a 1 year low of $48.95 and a 1 year high of $71.32. The company has a market capitalization of $14.38 billion, a P/E ratio of 4.02, a P/E/G ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 0.99. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $52.68 and a 200 day moving average price of $58.93.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.84 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 return on equity of 16.17% and a net margin of 33.98%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down .8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.78 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate 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. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 3rd will be issued a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.57%. Ball’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 6.32%.

Ball declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock 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 stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are generally a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have weighed in on BALL. Wells Fargo & Company reaffirmed an “underweight” rating and issued a $49.00 price objective (down previously from $56.00) on shares of Ball in a report on Thursday, January 16th. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price objective on Ball from $75.00 to $66.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 6th. UBS Group decreased their price target on Ball from $60.00 to $55.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Citigroup decreased their price target on Ball from $69.00 to $59.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Finally, Truist Financial decreased their price target on 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 issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Ball currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price 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.