Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Invests $1.10 Million in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System purchased a new position in shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor purchased 19,100 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,099,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. DAVENPORT & Co LLC lifted its stake in Ball by 10.6% in the 3rd quarter. DAVENPORT & Co LLC now owns 42,340 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,108,000 after purchasing an additional 4,066 shares during the last quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC bought a new position in Ball in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Oak Thistle LLC bought a new position in Ball in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $444,000. Norris Perne & French LLP MI lifted its stake in Ball by 0.8% in the 3rd quarter. Norris Perne & French LLP MI now owns 431,792 shares of the company’s stock valued at $21,495,000 after purchasing an additional 3,559 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Czech National Bank lifted its stake in Ball by 47.9% in the 3rd quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 55,065 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,741,000 after purchasing an additional 17,829 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 86.51% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently commented on BALL. Mizuho increased their price objective on shares of Ball to $63.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 20th. Bank of America raised shares of Ball from an “underperform” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the company from $61.00 to $72.00 in a research note on Monday, March 4th. Citigroup started coverage on shares of Ball in a research note on Wednesday, March 27th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $70.00 price target for the company. Truist Financial reaffirmed a “hold” rating and set a $60.00 price target on shares of Ball in a research note on Friday, April 12th. Finally, TheStreet raised shares of Ball from a “c+” rating to a “b-” rating in a research note on Friday, March 8th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $65.58.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider Daniel William Fisher purchased 3,869 shares of Ball stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 14th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $64.56 per share, for a total transaction of $249,782.64. Following the completion of the acquisition, the insider now owns 111,866 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,222,068.96. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.81% of the company’s stock.

Ball Trading Up 0.1 %

BALL opened at $65.50 on Wednesday. Ball Co. has a twelve month low of $42.81 and a twelve month high of $67.97. The company has a quick ratio of 0.54, a current ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.96. The company has a fifty day moving average of $64.84 and a 200-day moving average of $57.68. The stock has a market cap of $20.67 billion, a PE ratio of 29.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.20 and a beta of 0.89.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 1st. The company reported $0.78 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.77 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $3.40 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.56 billion. Ball had a net margin of 5.04% and a return on equity of 23.81%. Ball’s revenue for the quarter was down 4.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.44 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Ball Co. will post 3.09 EPS for the current year.

Ball Company 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.