abrdn plc Has $34.67 Million Stake in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

abrdn plc reduced its stake in shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 0.7% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 513,220 shares of the company’s stock after selling 3,487 shares during the quarter. abrdn plc’s holdings in Ball were worth $34,673,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of BALL. Boston Partners lifted its holdings in Ball by 114.1% during the 1st quarter. Boston Partners now owns 4,057,645 shares of the company’s stock worth $273,347,000 after buying an additional 2,162,167 shares in the last quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company lifted its stake in shares of Ball by 458.6% during the second quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 1,018,648 shares of the company’s stock valued at $61,139,000 after acquiring an additional 836,293 shares during the period. M&G Plc bought a new position in Ball in the first quarter valued at about $50,193,000. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Ball by 0.8% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 35,855,312 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,415,214,000 after purchasing an additional 267,479 shares during the period. Finally, WINTON GROUP Ltd raised its holdings in Ball by 1,875.2% during the 2nd quarter. WINTON GROUP Ltd now owns 275,238 shares of the company’s stock worth $16,520,000 after purchasing an additional 261,303 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.51% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Ball from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $69.00 to $78.00 in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th. Truist Financial reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $78.00 target price (up previously from $76.00) on shares of Ball in a report on Friday, August 2nd. UBS Group increased their price target on Ball from $56.00 to $59.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 6th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on Ball from $61.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 15th. Finally, Robert W. Baird raised Ball from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $70.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, August 14th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $71.08.

Ball Price Performance

Shares of BALL opened at $64.19 on Thursday. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $65.38 and a 200 day simple moving average of $65.09. Ball Co. has a 52-week low of $46.95 and a 52-week high of $71.32. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a current ratio of 1.18. The firm has a market capitalization of $19.49 billion, a PE ratio of 4.84, a P/E/G ratio of 1.63 and a beta of 0.88.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The company reported $0.74 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.70 by $0.04. Ball had a net margin of 32.79% and a return on equity of 19.45%. The company had revenue of $2.96 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.10 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.61 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 3.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts predict that Ball Co. will post 3.12 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ball Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Investors of record on Monday, December 2nd will be paid a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.25%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 2nd. Ball’s payout ratio is presently 6.04%.

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.