Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL – Free Report) by 49.2% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 4,872 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,606 shares during the period. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC’s holdings in Ball were worth $269,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
A number of other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Ball in the 4th quarter worth approximately $94,861,000. FMR LLC raised its holdings in shares of Ball by 15.4% in 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. First Merchants Corp raised its holdings in shares of Ball by 1,335.8% in the 4th quarter. First Merchants Corp now owns 619,205 shares of the company’s stock worth $34,137,000 after purchasing an additional 576,078 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Ball by 4.7% in the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 6,954,876 shares of the company’s stock worth $453,144,000 after purchasing an additional 309,587 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp raised its holdings in shares of Ball by 3,599.7% in the 4th quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 317,321 shares of the company’s stock worth $17,494,000 after purchasing an additional 308,744 shares in the last quarter. 86.51% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.
Wall Street Analyst Weigh In
BALL has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. 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 report on Monday, January 6th. Mizuho upgraded shares of Ball from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $67.00 price target on the stock in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. 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 report 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 report on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, 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 report on Thursday, February 6th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $64.64.
Read Our Latest Analysis on BALL
Ball Price Performance
NYSE BALL opened at $51.83 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 1.00, a quick ratio of 0.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $52.53 and a 200 day simple moving average of $58.57. The company has a market cap of $14.63 billion, a P/E ratio of 4.09, a P/E/G 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.
Ball (NYSE:BALL – Get Free Report) last posted 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 business had revenue of $2.88 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.92 billion. Ball had a net margin of 33.98% and a return on equity of 16.17%. Ball’s quarterly revenue was down .8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.78 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Ball Co. will post 3.48 EPS for the current year.
Ball Dividend Announcement
The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Investors of record on Monday, March 3rd were issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.54%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 3rd. Ball’s dividend payout ratio is currently 6.32%.
Ball announced that its board has initiated a stock buyback program on Wednesday, January 29th that permits the company to buyback $4.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the company to repurchase up to 24.2% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.
Ball Company Profile
(Free Report)
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.
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