Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) Shares Purchased by Independent Advisor Alliance

Independent Advisor Alliance raised its position in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 16.8% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 4,478 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 644 shares during the period. Independent Advisor Alliance’s holdings in Ball were worth $247,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Empowered Funds LLC lifted its holdings in Ball by 7.5% in the third quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 5,031 shares of the company’s stock valued at $342,000 after acquiring an additional 350 shares during the last quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Ball by 13.1% in the 3rd quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 216,338 shares of the company’s stock valued at $14,692,000 after purchasing an additional 25,048 shares during the last quarter. Quest Partners LLC increased its position in shares of Ball by 3.8% during the 3rd quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 11,662 shares of the company’s stock worth $792,000 after purchasing an additional 432 shares during the last quarter. B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. Holding AG acquired a new stake in shares of Ball during the 3rd quarter worth about $845,000. Finally, PNC Financial Services Group Inc. raised its holdings in Ball by 1.8% in the 3rd quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 155,243 shares of the company’s stock valued at $10,543,000 after buying an additional 2,680 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.51% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on BALL shares. Barclays dropped their price target on shares of Ball from $72.00 to $61.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Truist Financial cut their target price on Ball from $78.00 to $73.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, January 6th. UBS Group lowered their price target on Ball from $60.00 to $55.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Citigroup cut their price objective on Ball from $69.00 to $59.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 6th. Finally, Mizuho raised Ball from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $67.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $64.64.

Ball Price Performance

BALL stock opened at $51.83 on Thursday. The business’s 50-day moving average is $52.53 and its two-hundred day moving average is $58.57. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90, a current ratio of 1.00 and a quick ratio of 0.69. The firm has a market capitalization 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) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.84 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.92 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.78 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down .8% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts anticipate that Ball Co. will post 3.48 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ball Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Investors of record on Monday, March 3rd were paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.54%. Ball’s payout ratio is currently 6.32%.

Ball announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback program on Wednesday, January 29th that allows the company to buyback $4.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the company to purchase up to 24.2% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Ball 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.