Kentucky Retirement Systems Sells 712 Shares of Ball Corporation (NYSE:BALL)

Kentucky Retirement Systems trimmed its stake in shares of Ball Corporation (NYSE:BALL) by 3.4% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 20,149 shares of the company’s stock after selling 712 shares during the quarter. Kentucky Retirement Systems’ holdings in Ball were worth $1,049,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in BALL. Brighton Jones LLC increased its stake in Ball by 41.2% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 5,245 shares of the company’s stock worth $289,000 after acquiring an additional 1,531 shares during the last quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in Ball by 328.4% in the 4th quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 664 shares of the company’s stock worth $37,000 after acquiring an additional 509 shares during the last quarter. Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund bought a new position in Ball in the 4th quarter worth about $617,000. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd increased its stake in Ball by 11.2% in the 4th quarter. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd now owns 37,881 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,088,000 after acquiring an additional 3,818 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Impax Asset Management Group plc increased its stake in Ball by 2.4% in the 4th quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc now owns 458,416 shares of the company’s stock worth $25,272,000 after acquiring an additional 10,663 shares during the last quarter. 86.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

BALL has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Barclays decreased their target price on Ball from $61.00 to $57.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, May 14th. Royal Bank Of Canada upped their price objective on Ball from $62.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, May 8th. UBS Group cut their price objective on Ball from $55.00 to $54.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 7th. Mizuho cut their price objective on Ball from $63.00 to $58.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 15th. Finally, Truist Financial cut their price objective on Ball from $65.00 to $58.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 22nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Ball currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $61.00.

Ball Trading Up 0.6%

Shares of BALL stock opened at $57.01 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $15.82 billion, a PE ratio of 33.93, a P/E/G ratio of 1.52 and a beta of 1.08. Ball Corporation has a 1-year low of $43.51 and a 1-year high of $68.12. The business has a 50-day moving average of $52.69 and a 200 day moving average of $52.65. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.10, a current ratio of 1.04 and a quick ratio of 0.70.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, May 6th. The company reported $0.76 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.69 by $0.07. The company had revenue of $3.10 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.91 billion. Ball had a return on equity of 15.41% and a net margin of 4.18%. Ball’s quarterly revenue was up 7.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.68 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Ball Corporation will post 3.48 earnings per share for the current year.

Ball Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 16th. Investors of record on Monday, June 2nd were issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.40%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 2nd. Ball’s dividend payout ratio is presently 47.62%.

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.