Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) Shares Sold by New York State Common Retirement Fund

New York State Common Retirement Fund lowered its stake in shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 3.9% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 322,694 shares of the company’s stock after selling 13,148 shares during the quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund owned about 0.11% of Ball worth $17,790,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Everence Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Ball during the fourth quarter valued at about $774,000. Meeder Asset Management Inc. increased its holdings in Ball by 400.4% in the 3rd quarter. Meeder Asset Management Inc. now owns 162,690 shares of the company’s stock worth $11,048,000 after buying an additional 130,175 shares during the period. Estate Counselors LLC acquired a new position in Ball in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $1,825,000. Hemenway Trust Co LLC increased its holdings in Ball by 46.3% in the 3rd quarter. Hemenway Trust Co LLC now owns 275,083 shares of the company’s stock worth $18,681,000 after buying an additional 87,120 shares during the period. Finally, Loring Wolcott & Coolidge Fiduciary Advisors LLP MA increased its holdings in Ball by 531,933.3% in 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 buying an additional 47,874 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.51% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

BALL has been the topic of several research reports. Mizuho upgraded shares of Ball from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $67.00 price target on the stock in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. Robert W. Baird cut their price target on shares of Ball from $70.00 to $63.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. UBS Group cut their price target on shares of Ball from $60.00 to $55.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Truist Financial cut their price target on shares of Ball from $78.00 to $73.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 6th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on Ball from $75.00 to $70.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $65.25.

Ball Trading Up 1.8 %

Shares of NYSE:BALL opened at $51.35 on Friday. Ball Co. has a 1 year low of $48.95 and a 1 year high of $71.32. The firm has a market capitalization of $15.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 4.06, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 0.94. 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 business’s 50 day moving average price is $53.74 and its 200-day moving average price is $59.99.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.84 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.81 by $0.03. Ball had a return on equity of 16.17% and a net margin of 33.98%. The firm had revenue of $2.88 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.92 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.78 EPS. The business’s revenue was down .8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Ball Co. will post 3.48 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ball declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase plan on Wednesday, January 29th that allows the company to buyback $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the company to buy 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.

Ball Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.56%. Ball’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 6.32%.

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.