Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) Shares Sold by Rhumbline Advisers

Rhumbline Advisers reduced its stake in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 4.0% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 561,851 shares of the company’s stock after selling 23,310 shares during the quarter. Rhumbline Advisers owned 0.19% of Ball worth $30,975,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Moors & Cabot Inc. raised its position in Ball by 4.5% in the third quarter. Moors & Cabot Inc. now owns 4,442 shares of the company’s stock valued at $302,000 after purchasing an additional 192 shares during the period. Advisors Asset Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Ball by 1.2% in the third quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 16,895 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,147,000 after buying an additional 199 shares in the last quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC raised its holdings in shares of Ball by 2.1% in the 4th quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC now owns 10,082 shares of the company’s stock valued at $556,000 after buying an additional 210 shares during the period. Empirical Finance LLC lifted its stake in Ball by 2.0% during the 3rd quarter. Empirical Finance LLC now owns 10,969 shares of the company’s stock worth $745,000 after acquiring an additional 216 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Castleview Partners LLC boosted its holdings in Ball by 9.7% during the 3rd quarter. Castleview Partners LLC now owns 2,501 shares of the company’s stock valued at $170,000 after acquiring an additional 221 shares during the period. 86.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on BALL. Mizuho raised shares of Ball from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $67.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Robert W. Baird decreased their price target on shares of Ball from $70.00 to $63.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Royal Bank of Canada cut their price objective on Ball from $75.00 to $66.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Wells Fargo & Company reiterated an “underweight” rating and issued a $49.00 target price (down from $56.00) on shares of Ball in a report on Thursday, January 16th. Finally, Truist Financial cut their price target on Ball from $78.00 to $73.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 6th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $65.25.

Ball Stock Up 0.1 %

BALL stock opened at $49.90 on Wednesday. The company’s 50 day moving average is $54.19 and its two-hundred day moving average is $60.23. Ball Co. has a twelve month low of $49.00 and a twelve month high of $71.32. The company has a current ratio of 1.00, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90. The stock has a market cap of $14.89 billion, a P/E ratio of 3.94, a PEG ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 0.94.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.84 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.81 by $0.03. Ball had a net margin of 33.98% and a return on equity of 16.17%. The firm had revenue of $2.88 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.92 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.78 earnings per share. Ball’s quarterly revenue was down .8% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts expect that Ball Co. will post 3.54 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ball Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.60%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 3rd. Ball’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 6.32%.

Ball declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase program on Wednesday, January 29th that allows the company to buyback $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the company to purchase up to 24.2% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are usually an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

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.