Principal Financial Group Inc. Takes Position in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

Principal Financial Group Inc. acquired a new stake in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL – Get Rating) during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor acquired 380,503 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $19,459,000.

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Allworth Financial LP boosted its position in Ball by 48.2% in the 4th quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 861 shares of the company’s stock valued at $44,000 after buying an additional 280 shares during the last quarter. BerganKDV Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Ball during the 4th quarter worth $25,000. Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Ball in the 4th quarter valued at about $26,000. Glassman Wealth Services acquired a new stake in shares of Ball in the 4th quarter valued at about $26,000. Finally, Covington Capital Management bought a new position in shares of Ball in the 3rd quarter valued at about $26,000. 82.65% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

BALL has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Truist Financial reiterated a “hold” rating and set a $58.00 price target on shares of Ball in a report on Wednesday, April 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of Ball from $55.00 to $61.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 7th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on shares of Ball from $46.00 to $51.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 3rd. Finally, Mizuho boosted their target price on shares of Ball from $58.00 to $59.00 in a research note on Tuesday, April 18th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $56.67.

Ball Price Performance

Shares of BALL opened at $54.60 on Monday. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $53.52 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $54.50. The stock has a market cap of $17.17 billion, a PE ratio of 38.45, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.60 and a beta of 0.78. Ball Co. has a fifty-two week low of $46.00 and a fifty-two week high of $74.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.97, a quick ratio of 0.46 and a current ratio of 0.76.

Ball (NYSE:BALL – Get Rating) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 4th. The company reported $0.69 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.49 by $0.20. The business had revenue of $3.49 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.57 billion. Ball had a net margin of 2.98% and a return on equity of 23.92%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.77 earnings per share. Analysts anticipate that Ball Co. will post 3.06 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ball Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, June 1st will be issued a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 31st. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.47%. Ball’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 56.34%.

About Ball

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Ball Corp. provides metal packaging for beverages, foods, and household products. It operates through the following business segments: Beverage Packaging North and Central America, Beverage Packaging South America, Beverage Packaging Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), and Aerospace. The Beverage Packaging North and Central America segment includes multi-year supply contracts to fillers of carbonated soft drinks, beer, energy drinks, and other beverages.