Vinva Investment Management Ltd Sells 236 Shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

Vinva Investment Management Ltd lessened its position in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 1.9% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 12,062 shares of the company’s stock after selling 236 shares during the period. Vinva Investment Management Ltd’s holdings in Ball were worth $663,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Intech Investment Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Ball in the fourth quarter worth approximately $980,000. RD Lewis Holdings Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Ball during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $277,000. Tocqueville Asset Management L.P. raised its holdings in shares of Ball by 4.7% during the fourth quarter. Tocqueville Asset Management L.P. now owns 46,815 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,581,000 after purchasing an additional 2,120 shares during the last quarter. Cibc World Markets Corp raised its holdings in shares of Ball by 289.1% during the fourth quarter. Cibc World Markets Corp now owns 161,908 shares of the company’s stock valued at $8,926,000 after purchasing an additional 120,300 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Natixis Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Ball by 23.6% during the fourth quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 267,459 shares of the company’s stock valued at $14,745,000 after purchasing an additional 51,121 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 86.51% of the company’s stock.

Ball Stock Performance

BALL opened at $50.69 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $14.31 billion, a P/E ratio of 4.00, a PEG ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 0.99. Ball Co. has a 1-year low of $48.95 and a 1-year high of $71.32. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $52.47 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $58.43. 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 (NYSE:BALL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.84 earnings per share 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 analyst estimates 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% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.78 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that Ball Co. will post 3.48 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ball declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a share buyback program on Wednesday, January 29th that authorizes the company to buyback $4.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the company to buy up to 24.2% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are usually an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Ball Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Investors of record on Monday, March 3rd were given 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 dividend yield of 1.58%. Ball’s dividend payout ratio is 6.32%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Truist Financial decreased their price objective on shares of Ball from $78.00 to $73.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, January 6th. Barclays decreased their price objective on shares of Ball from $72.00 to $61.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Wells Fargo & Company reissued an “underweight” rating and set a $49.00 price objective (down from $56.00) on shares of Ball in a report on Thursday, January 16th. Robert W. Baird decreased their price objective on shares of Ball from $70.00 to $63.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, UBS Group reduced their target price on shares of Ball from $60.00 to $55.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 13th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average 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.