Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC Has $933,000 Position in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC grew its stake in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 10.0% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 17,135 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 1,559 shares during the quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC’s holdings in Ball were worth $933,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in BALL. FMR LLC lifted its position in shares of Ball by 15.4% in the 3rd 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 during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. grew its stake in shares of Ball by 4.7% in the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 6,954,876 shares of the company’s stock worth $453,144,000 after acquiring an additional 309,587 shares in the last quarter. KBC Group NV grew its stake in shares of Ball by 402.1% in the 3rd quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 265,261 shares of the company’s stock worth $18,014,000 after acquiring an additional 212,430 shares in the last quarter. Meeder Asset Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of 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 last quarter. Finally, Boston Common Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Ball by 45.8% in the 4th quarter. Boston Common Asset Management LLC now owns 346,220 shares of the company’s stock worth $19,087,000 after buying an additional 108,679 shares during the last quarter. 86.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

BALL has been the topic of several recent research reports. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on shares of Ball from $75.00 to $70.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Truist Financial decreased their price objective 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. Barclays reduced their price target on shares of Ball from $72.00 to $61.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Mizuho upgraded shares of Ball from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $67.00 target price on the stock in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. Finally, UBS Group dropped their price target on Ball from $60.00 to $55.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. One 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. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $65.25.

Ball Price Performance

BALL opened at $51.35 on Monday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $53.74 and a 200-day moving average price of $59.97. 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 firm has a market cap of $15.33 billion, a PE ratio of 4.06, a P/E/G ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 0.94. Ball Co. has a 1 year low of $48.95 and a 1 year high of $71.32.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 return on equity of 16.17% and a net margin of 33.98%. The company had revenue of $2.88 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.92 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.78 EPS. Ball’s revenue for the quarter was down .8% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts predict that Ball Co. will post 3.48 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ball Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Investors of record on Monday, March 3rd will be issued a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.56%. Ball’s dividend payout ratio is currently 6.32%.

Ball announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback program on Wednesday, January 29th that permits the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the company to repurchase up to 24.2% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are typically an indication that the company’s board of directors 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.