Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) Shares Purchased by Geode Capital Management LLC

Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 0.2% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 7,128,336 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 12,557 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC owned approximately 2.39% of Ball worth $391,926,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Everence Capital Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Ball in the 4th quarter worth $774,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Ball in the 4th quarter valued at about $94,861,000. Loring Wolcott & Coolidge Fiduciary Advisors LLP MA grew its holdings in shares of Ball by 531,933.3% during the 4th quarter. Loring Wolcott & Coolidge Fiduciary Advisors LLP MA now owns 47,883 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,707,000 after purchasing an additional 47,874 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its position in Ball by 2.0% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,891,046 shares of the company’s stock worth $104,253,000 after purchasing an additional 36,809 shares in the last quarter. Finally, VisionPoint Advisory Group LLC raised its holdings in Ball by 99.5% in the fourth quarter. VisionPoint Advisory Group LLC now owns 37,719 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,053,000 after buying an additional 18,809 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.51% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

BALL has been the subject of several recent research reports. UBS Group dropped their price objective on shares of Ball from $60.00 to $55.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price target on Ball from $75.00 to $66.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Citigroup reduced their price objective on Ball from $69.00 to $59.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Truist Financial lowered their target price on Ball from $78.00 to $73.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company restated an “underweight” rating and issued a $49.00 target price (down from $56.00) on shares of Ball in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, five have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $63.30.

Ball Stock Performance

BALL stock opened at $48.54 on Friday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $51.82 and its 200 day simple moving average is $57.47. Ball Co. has a 12-month low of $48.51 and a 12-month high of $71.32. The firm has a market cap of $13.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 3.83, a P/E/G ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 0.99. The company has a current ratio of 1.00, a quick ratio of 0.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.84 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 company had revenue of $2.88 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.92 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.78 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down .8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Ball Co. will post 3.48 EPS for the current year.

Ball Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 3rd were issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.65%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 3rd. Ball’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 6.32%.

Ball declared that its board has initiated a share buyback plan on Wednesday, January 29th that authorizes the company to buyback $4.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the company to reacquire up to 24.2% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are often a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

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.