Sentry Investment Management LLC Trims Stock Position in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

Sentry Investment Management LLC reduced its stake in shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 9.7% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 1,643 shares of the company’s stock after selling 177 shares during the period. Sentry Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Ball were worth $95,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of BALL. Quarry LP grew its holdings in shares of Ball by 446.3% during the second quarter. Quarry LP now owns 448 shares of the company’s stock worth $26,000 after buying an additional 366 shares in the last quarter. Resurgent Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Ball in the 4th quarter worth approximately $26,000. Covington Capital Management purchased a new stake in Ball in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $26,000. Deseret Mutual Benefit Administrators raised its holdings in Ball by 80.4% in the 3rd quarter. Deseret Mutual Benefit Administrators now owns 572 shares of the company’s stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 255 shares during the last quarter. Finally, NBC Securities Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Ball during the 3rd quarter worth $29,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.51% of the company’s stock.

Ball Stock Up 0.6 %

Shares of Ball stock opened at $64.35 on Friday. Ball Co. has a twelve month low of $42.81 and a twelve month high of $67.97. The stock has a market cap of $20.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.73, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.10 and a beta of 0.89. The company has a current ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 0.54 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.96. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $64.51 and a 200 day moving average price of $57.19.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 1st. The company reported $0.78 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.77 by $0.01. Ball had a return on equity of 23.81% and a net margin of 5.04%. The company had revenue of $3.40 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.56 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.44 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was down 4.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts forecast that Ball Co. will post 3.11 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ball Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 1st were paid a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 29th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.24%. Ball’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 35.71%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently commented on BALL. Wolfe Research initiated coverage on Ball in a research report on Friday, March 1st. They issued a “peer perform” rating for the company. Barclays reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating and set a $71.00 price objective (up previously from $66.00) on shares of Ball in a research note on Thursday, April 4th. Morgan Stanley initiated coverage on shares of Ball in a research report on Monday, March 18th. They issued an “equal weight” rating and a $68.00 target price on the stock. Citigroup assumed coverage on shares of Ball in a research report on Wednesday, March 27th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $70.00 price target for the company. Finally, Truist Financial reiterated a “hold” rating and issued a $60.00 price target on shares of Ball in a report on Friday, April 12th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Ball currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $65.58.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Ball news, insider Daniel William Fisher bought 3,869 shares of Ball stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 14th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $64.56 per share, for a total transaction of $249,782.64. Following the purchase, the insider now owns 111,866 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,222,068.96. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.81% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Ball Company 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.