Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) Shares Purchased by Neuberger Berman Group LLC

Neuberger Berman Group LLC boosted its position in shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL - Free Report) by 2.4% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 453,185 shares of the company's stock after purchasing an additional 10,729 shares during the period. Neuberger Berman Group LLC owned 0.15% of Ball worth $24,984,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Everence Capital Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Ball in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $774,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in shares of Ball in the 4th quarter valued at about $94,861,000. Loring Wolcott & Coolidge Fiduciary Advisors LLP MA boosted its holdings in Ball by 531,933.3% during the fourth quarter. Loring Wolcott & Coolidge Fiduciary Advisors LLP MA now owns 47,883 shares of the company's stock worth $2,707,000 after buying an additional 47,874 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in Ball by 2.0% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,891,046 shares of the company's stock valued at $104,253,000 after purchasing an additional 36,809 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Aviva PLC raised its stake in Ball by 63.4% during the 4th quarter. Aviva PLC now owns 523,765 shares of the company's stock worth $28,875,000 after buying an additional 203,298 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.51% of the company's stock.

Ball Trading Up 0.5 %

Shares of NYSE BALL traded up $0.23 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $47.83. The company's stock had a trading volume of 330,899 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,096,188. The firm has a market cap of $13.51 billion, a P/E ratio of 3.78, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 1.01. Ball Co. has a 12-month low of $43.51 and a 12-month high of $71.32. The business's 50 day moving average is $50.46 and its two-hundred day moving average is $56.21. The company has a current ratio of 1.00, a quick ratio of 0.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90.

Ball (NYSE:BALL - Get Free Report) last posted 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. 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%. Ball's revenue was down .8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.78 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Ball Co. will post 3.48 EPS for the current year.

Ball Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 3rd were given a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.67%. Ball's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 6.32%.

Ball announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock buyback plan on Wednesday, January 29th that authorizes the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the company to repurchase up to 24.2% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are often an indication that the company's leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently commented on the stock. Citigroup cut their price objective 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. Barclays dropped their price target on Ball from $72.00 to $61.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Wells Fargo & Company reissued an "underweight" rating and issued a $49.00 price objective (down from $56.00) on shares of Ball in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. UBS Group lowered their price objective on shares of Ball from $55.00 to $54.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 7th. Finally, Truist Financial decreased their target price on Ball from $78.00 to $73.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 6th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $62.30.

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.