Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) Stock Holdings Lowered by O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC

O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC cut its position in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 4.3% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 6,709 shares of the company’s stock after selling 303 shares during the quarter. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Ball were worth $370,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Clearbridge Investments LLC boosted its position in shares of Ball by 0.7% during the fourth quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 757,156 shares of the company’s stock worth $41,742,000 after buying an additional 5,374 shares during the period. Allstate Corp bought a new stake in Ball during the 4th quarter valued at $481,000. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. boosted its position in Ball by 3.3% during the 4th quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. now owns 16,481 shares of the company’s stock worth $909,000 after acquiring an additional 532 shares during the period. Heartland Advisors Inc. grew its stake in shares of Ball by 7.4% in the fourth quarter. Heartland Advisors Inc. now owns 287,167 shares of the company’s stock worth $15,832,000 after purchasing an additional 19,805 shares in the last quarter. Finally, DnB Asset Management AS increased its holdings in shares of Ball by 2.1% during the fourth quarter. DnB Asset Management AS now owns 59,583 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,285,000 after purchasing an additional 1,242 shares during the period. 86.51% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Barclays decreased their target price on shares of Ball from $72.00 to $61.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price objective on shares of Ball from $75.00 to $66.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Citigroup cut their target price on Ball from $69.00 to $59.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Wells Fargo & Company reiterated an “underweight” rating and set a $49.00 price target (down from $56.00) on shares of Ball in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. Finally, Truist Financial cut their price objective on Ball from $78.00 to $73.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, January 6th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $63.20.

Ball Trading Up 4.7 %

Shares of NYSE BALL opened at $48.12 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.69, a current ratio of 1.00 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90. Ball Co. has a 12 month low of $43.51 and a 12 month high of $71.32. The company has a market cap of $13.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 3.80, a P/E/G ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 1.01. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $50.58 and a 200-day simple moving average of $56.48.

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

Ball Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 3rd were issued a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.66%. Ball’s payout ratio is currently 6.32%.

Ball declared that its board has authorized a stock repurchase plan 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 plans are typically a sign that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

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.