Chevy Chase Trust Holdings LLC Sells 5,568 Shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

Chevy Chase Trust Holdings LLC lessened its stake in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL - Free Report) by 3.4% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 158,006 shares of the company's stock after selling 5,568 shares during the quarter. Chevy Chase Trust Holdings LLC owned 0.05% of Ball worth $8,711,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC purchased a new stake in Ball during the 3rd quarter valued at $156,000. Creative Planning boosted its position in shares of Ball by 8.8% during the third quarter. Creative Planning now owns 20,827 shares of the company's stock valued at $1,414,000 after buying an additional 1,679 shares during the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. increased its holdings in Ball by 35.7% in the 3rd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 2,064 shares of the company's stock worth $140,000 after buying an additional 543 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James & Associates raised its position in Ball by 6.1% in the 3rd quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 1,720,859 shares of the company's stock worth $116,864,000 after buying an additional 99,306 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Castleview Partners LLC lifted its stake in Ball by 9.7% during the 3rd quarter. Castleview Partners LLC now owns 2,501 shares of the company's stock valued at $170,000 after acquiring an additional 221 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 86.51% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have recently weighed in on BALL. Truist Financial decreased their price objective on shares of Ball from $78.00 to $73.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Monday, January 6th. Royal Bank of Canada decreased 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. UBS Group dropped their price target on Ball from $60.00 to $55.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Citigroup cut their price objective on Ball from $69.00 to $59.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a report on Monday, January 6th. Finally, Barclays lowered their target price on Ball from $72.00 to $61.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 6th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $65.25.

Ball Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:BALL traded up $0.90 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $51.35. 3,493,153 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,785,969. The company's 50 day moving average price is $53.74 and its 200-day moving average price is $60.01. The firm has a market cap of $15.33 billion, a PE ratio of 4.06, a PEG ratio of 1.19 and a beta of 0.94. Ball Co. has a 52 week low of $48.95 and a 52 week high of $71.32. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90, a current ratio of 1.00 and a quick ratio of 0.69.

Ball (NYSE:BALL - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.84 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.81 by $0.03. The business 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 company's revenue was down .8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.78 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts expect that Ball Co. will post 3.49 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ball Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 3rd will be paid 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 payout ratio is presently 6.32%.

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

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.