Mizuho Securities USA LLC Buys 8,599 Shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

Mizuho Securities USA LLC lifted its stake in shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL - Free Report) by 43.7% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 28,284 shares of the company's stock after purchasing an additional 8,599 shares during the quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC's holdings in Ball were worth $1,559,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in Ball during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $94,861,000. FMR LLC raised its position in shares of Ball by 15.4% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 4,418,570 shares of the company's stock valued at $300,065,000 after buying an additional 588,282 shares in the last quarter. First Merchants Corp grew its position in Ball by 1,335.8% in the fourth quarter. First Merchants Corp now owns 619,205 shares of the company's stock worth $34,137,000 after acquiring an additional 576,078 shares in the last quarter. LBP AM SA increased its stake in Ball by 124.4% in the fourth quarter. LBP AM SA now owns 587,099 shares of the company's stock valued at $32,367,000 after acquiring an additional 325,497 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. raised its position in Ball by 4.7% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 6,954,876 shares of the company's stock valued at $453,144,000 after purchasing an additional 309,587 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.51% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently commented on BALL shares. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price objective on Ball from $75.00 to $66.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Citigroup reduced their price target on shares of Ball from $69.00 to $59.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on shares of Ball from $75.00 to $70.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Truist Financial reduced their target price on shares of Ball from $78.00 to $73.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 6th. Finally, Barclays decreased their target price 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. 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 assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $63.30.

Remove Ads

Ball Trading Down 1.2 %

Ball stock traded down $0.61 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $51.45. The stock had a trading volume of 1,765,814 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,032,346. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $52.18 and a 200-day simple moving average of $57.93. Ball Co. has a 52 week low of $48.95 and a 52 week high of $71.32. The stock has a market cap of $14.53 billion, a PE ratio of 4.06, a PEG ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 0.99. 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 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. Ball had a net margin of 33.98% and a return on equity of 16.17%. The company had revenue of $2.88 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.92 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.78 earnings per share. Ball's revenue for the quarter was down .8% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that Ball Co. will post 3.48 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ball Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 3rd were given a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.56%. Ball's dividend payout ratio is currently 6.32%.

Ball announced that its Board of Directors has approved 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 buy up to 24.2% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are usually a sign that the company's leadership 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.