Asset Management One Co. Ltd. Sells 2,061 Shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

Asset Management One Co. Ltd. decreased its position in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 1.7% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 116,642 shares of the company’s stock after selling 2,061 shares during the period. Asset Management One Co. Ltd.’s holdings in Ball were worth $6,512,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in BALL. Peterson Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Ball in the 3rd quarter valued at $30,000. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Ball in the 3rd quarter worth $47,000. Brooklyn Investment Group acquired a new position in Ball in the 3rd quarter worth $66,000. Farther Finance Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Ball by 29.1% in the 3rd quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 1,011 shares of the company’s stock worth $69,000 after purchasing an additional 228 shares during the period. Finally, Hager Investment Management Services LLC acquired a new position in Ball in the 4th quarter worth $76,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.51% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on BALL shares. Mizuho raised shares of Ball from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $67.00 target price for the company in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. Truist Financial reduced their target price on shares of Ball from $78.00 to $73.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their target price on shares of Ball from $75.00 to $66.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Citigroup reduced their target price on shares of Ball from $69.00 to $59.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Finally, Barclays reduced their price objective on shares of Ball from $72.00 to $61.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $65.25.

Ball Stock Up 0.1 %

Ball stock opened at $49.90 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $14.89 billion, a P/E ratio of 3.94, a P/E/G ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a quick ratio of 0.82, a current ratio of 1.00 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90. Ball Co. has a twelve month low of $49.00 and a twelve month high of $71.32. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $54.19 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $60.23.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.84 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 last year, the firm earned $0.78 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down .8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts expect that Ball Co. will post 3.54 EPS for the current year.

Ball declared that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback program on Wednesday, January 29th that allows the company to buyback $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the company to purchase up to 24.2% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are typically a sign that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Ball Dividend Announcement

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 issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.60%. Ball’s dividend payout ratio is presently 6.32%.

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.