Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt Increases Position in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt increased its stake in shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 71.8% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 1,055 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 441 shares during the quarter. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt’s holdings in Ball were worth $61,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in 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 valued at $26,000 after buying an additional 366 shares during the last quarter. Resurgent Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Ball in the fourth quarter valued at $26,000. Covington Capital Management purchased a new stake in Ball in the third quarter valued at $26,000. Deseret Mutual Benefit Administrators boosted its holdings in Ball by 80.4% in the third quarter. Deseret Mutual Benefit Administrators now owns 572 shares of the company’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 255 shares during the last quarter. Finally, NBC Securities Inc. purchased a new stake in Ball in the third quarter valued at $29,000. 86.51% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

BALL has been the topic of several recent research reports. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of Ball from $52.00 to $62.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, March 18th. Barclays reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating and issued a $71.00 price target (up from $66.00) on shares of Ball in a report on Thursday, April 4th. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price target on shares of Ball from $69.00 to $78.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Truist Financial reaffirmed a “hold” rating and issued a $60.00 price target on shares of Ball in a report on Friday, April 12th. Finally, Citigroup began coverage on shares of Ball in a report on Wednesday, March 27th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $70.00 price target on the stock. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $65.58.

Ball Trading Up 0.9 %

Shares of Ball stock opened at $64.95 on Friday. Ball Co. has a fifty-two week low of $42.81 and a fifty-two week high of $67.97. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.96, a quick ratio of 0.54 and a current ratio of 0.79. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $64.63 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $57.30. The company has a market cap of $20.50 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.11 and a beta of 0.89.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last released its quarterly 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 net margin of 5.04% and a return on equity of 23.81%. The firm 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 firm earned $0.44 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 4.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts predict that Ball Co. will post 3.11 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ball Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 15th. Investors of record on Friday, March 1st were given a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 29th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.23%. Ball’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 35.71%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Daniel William Fisher purchased 3,869 shares of Ball stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 14th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $64.56 per share, for a total transaction of $249,782.64. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 111,866 shares in the company, valued at $7,222,068.96. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Insiders own 0.81% of the company’s stock.

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.