Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) Shares Purchased by UniSuper Management Pty Ltd

UniSuper Management Pty Ltd grew its holdings in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL - Free Report) by 31.7% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 39,976 shares of the company's stock after purchasing an additional 9,611 shares during the quarter. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd's holdings in Ball were worth $2,204,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. FMR LLC increased its holdings in Ball by 15.4% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 4,418,570 shares of the company's stock worth $300,065,000 after purchasing an additional 588,282 shares during the period. D.A. Davidson & CO. boosted its position in shares of Ball by 55.7% during the 3rd quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO. now owns 8,328 shares of the company's stock worth $566,000 after acquiring an additional 2,978 shares in the last quarter. Glenmede Trust Co. NA increased its holdings in shares of Ball by 4.9% in the 3rd quarter. Glenmede Trust Co. NA now owns 28,910 shares of the company's stock valued at $1,963,000 after acquiring an additional 1,361 shares during the last quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank raised its position in shares of Ball by 25.6% during the 3rd quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 89,984 shares of the company's stock worth $6,111,000 after acquiring an additional 18,327 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Public Sector Pension Investment Board boosted its holdings in Ball by 5.1% in the third quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 12,317 shares of the company's stock valued at $836,000 after purchasing an additional 600 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.51% of the company's stock.

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Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

BALL has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Citigroup reduced their price objective on shares of Ball from $69.00 to $59.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 6th. 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 research note on Monday, January 6th. Morgan Stanley cut their target price on Ball from $75.00 to $70.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Royal Bank of Canada dropped 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. Finally, Robert W. Baird reduced their price objective on Ball from $70.00 to $63.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Ball presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $63.30.

Ball Price Performance

Ball stock traded down $1.37 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $49.13. The company had a trading volume of 487,209 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,588,951. The stock's 50-day simple moving average is $51.95 and its 200-day simple moving average is $57.60. The company has a market capitalization of $13.87 billion, a P/E ratio of 3.88, a P/E/G 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 Co. has a 1 year low of $48.95 and a 1 year high of $71.32.

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

Ball announced that its board has approved a share repurchase program on Wednesday, January 29th that authorizes the company to buyback $4.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the company to buy up to 24.2% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are generally an indication that the company's management believes its stock is undervalued.

Ball Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 3rd were issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.63%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 3rd. Ball's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 6.32%.

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.