Alliancebernstein L.P. Sells 10,629 Shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

Alliancebernstein L.P. lessened its stake in shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL - Free Report) by 3.2% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 324,198 shares of the company's stock after selling 10,629 shares during the quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. owned about 0.11% of Ball worth $17,873,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of BALL. Meeder Asset Management Inc. grew its holdings in Ball by 15.1% in the 4th quarter. Meeder Asset Management Inc. now owns 187,272 shares of the company's stock valued at $10,324,000 after buying an additional 24,582 shares in the last quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC grew its position in shares of Ball by 0.7% during the 4th quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 757,156 shares of the company's stock worth $41,742,000 after purchasing an additional 5,374 shares in the last quarter. Allstate Corp acquired a new stake in shares of Ball in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $481,000. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. raised its position in shares of Ball by 3.3% in the fourth quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. now owns 16,481 shares of the company's stock valued at $909,000 after buying an additional 532 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Heartland Advisors Inc. boosted 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 valued at $15,832,000 after buying an additional 19,805 shares during the period. 86.51% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have weighed in on BALL. Truist Financial dropped 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. Barclays lowered 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 report on Thursday, February 6th. Citigroup reduced their price objective on Ball from $69.00 to $59.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Robert W. Baird dropped their price objective on shares of Ball from $70.00 to $63.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada cut their price target on Ball from $75.00 to $66.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, five have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $63.20.

Ball Stock Up 0.4 %

Shares of Ball stock traded up $0.17 on Monday, hitting $48.26. The company had a trading volume of 119,666 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,098,795. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $50.58 and a 200-day moving average of $56.40. Ball Co. has a 1 year low of $43.51 and a 1 year high of $71.32. The stock has a market capitalization of $13.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 3.81, a P/E/G ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90, a quick ratio of 0.69 and a current ratio of 1.00.

Ball (NYSE:BALL - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.84 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.81 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $2.88 billion during 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 business's revenue was down .8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.78 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Ball Co. will post 3.48 earnings per share for the current year.

Ball Announces Dividend

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

Ball announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock repurchase program on Wednesday, January 29th that permits the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the company to reacquire up to 24.2% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are often an indication that the company's board believes its stock is 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.