Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) Shares Sold by Cannell & Spears LLC

Cannell & Spears LLC cut its holdings in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 2.0% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 194,882 shares of the company’s stock after selling 4,002 shares during the period. Cannell & Spears LLC owned about 0.07% of Ball worth $10,744,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Ball in the fourth quarter worth about $190,105,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Ball in the 4th quarter worth approximately $94,861,000. FMR LLC raised its position in Ball by 15.4% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 4,418,570 shares of the company’s stock worth $300,065,000 after purchasing an additional 588,282 shares in the last quarter. First Merchants Corp raised its stake in Ball by 1,335.8% during the fourth quarter. First Merchants Corp now owns 619,205 shares of the company’s stock worth $34,137,000 after acquiring an additional 576,078 shares in the last quarter. Finally, LBP AM SA grew its stake in Ball by 124.4% during the fourth quarter. LBP AM SA now owns 587,099 shares of the company’s stock worth $32,367,000 after buying an additional 325,497 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.51% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have issued reports on the company. Barclays reduced their price objective on Ball from $72.00 to $61.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 6th. 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 research report on Monday, January 6th. Robert W. Baird dropped their price target on Ball from $70.00 to $63.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Citigroup cut their target price on Ball from $69.00 to $59.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price target on shares of Ball from $75.00 to $66.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 6th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $63.30.

Ball Trading Down 1.2 %

NYSE:BALL opened at $51.45 on Monday. Ball Co. has a one year low of $48.95 and a one year high of $71.32. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $52.18 and a 200-day moving average price of $57.88. The firm has a market capitalization of $14.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 4.06, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 0.99. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90, a current ratio of 1.00 and a quick ratio of 0.69.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.84 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.81 by $0.03. Ball had a return on equity of 16.17% and a net margin of 33.98%. The business had revenue of $2.88 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.92 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.78 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down .8% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts forecast that Ball Co. will post 3.48 EPS for the current year.

Ball Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Shareholders 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 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.56%. Ball’s payout ratio is currently 6.32%.

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