Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) Shares Sold by KBC Group NV

KBC Group NV lessened its position in shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 70.5% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 78,362 shares of the company’s stock after selling 186,899 shares during the quarter. KBC Group NV’s holdings in Ball were worth $4,320,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Franklin Resources Inc. increased its position in Ball by 4.7% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 6,954,876 shares of the company’s stock worth $453,144,000 after buying an additional 309,587 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its position in Ball by 15.4% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 4,418,570 shares of the company’s stock worth $300,065,000 after purchasing an additional 588,282 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James & Associates raised its stake in Ball by 6.1% in the 3rd quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 1,720,859 shares of the company’s stock valued at $116,864,000 after purchasing an additional 99,306 shares during the last quarter. M&G PLC lifted its holdings in Ball by 5.2% in the 3rd quarter. M&G PLC now owns 790,137 shares of the company’s stock valued at $53,729,000 after purchasing an additional 38,714 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Janus Henderson Group PLC boosted its stake in shares of Ball by 14.1% during the 3rd quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 707,279 shares of the company’s stock worth $48,030,000 after purchasing an additional 87,577 shares during the last quarter. 86.51% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Ball Price Performance

BALL opened at $56.23 on Friday. Ball Co. has a 52-week low of $51.96 and a 52-week high of $71.32. The company has a 50 day moving average of $56.77 and a two-hundred day moving average of $61.33. The company has a market cap of $16.78 billion, a P/E ratio of 4.24, a P/E/G ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 0.93. The company has a quick ratio of 0.82, a current ratio of 1.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The company reported $0.91 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.87 by $0.04. Ball had a net margin of 34.05% and a return on equity of 17.46%. The firm had revenue of $3.08 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.13 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.83 EPS. The firm’s revenue was down .9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts expect that Ball Co. will post 3.15 earnings per share for the current year.

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

Ball Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 3rd will be paid a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.42%. Ball’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 6.03%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. UBS Group raised shares of Ball from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their price objective for the company from $62.00 to $58.00 in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Citigroup decreased their price objective on Ball from $69.00 to $59.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 6th. Truist Financial dropped their target price on Ball from $78.00 to $73.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Morgan Stanley decreased their price target on Ball from $78.00 to $75.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Finally, Mizuho raised shares of Ball from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $67.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Ball currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $68.17.

Ball 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.