Boston Common Asset Management LLC Buys 108,679 Shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

Boston Common Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 45.8% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 346,220 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 108,679 shares during the quarter. Boston Common Asset Management LLC owned 0.12% of Ball worth $19,087,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Peterson Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Ball in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $30,000. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Ball in the third quarter worth $47,000. Quarry LP boosted its stake in Ball by 598.6% in the second quarter. Quarry LP now owns 999 shares of the company’s stock worth $60,000 after purchasing an additional 856 shares in the last quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group acquired a new stake in shares of Ball in the third quarter valued at $66,000. Finally, EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Ball by 334.0% in the second quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,059 shares of the company’s stock valued at $68,000 after buying an additional 815 shares during the last quarter. 86.51% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have weighed in on BALL. UBS Group upgraded shares of Ball from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $62.00 to $58.00 in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Mizuho upgraded shares of Ball from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $67.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Wells Fargo & Company reaffirmed an “underweight” rating and set a $49.00 price objective (down previously from $56.00) on shares of Ball in a report on Thursday. Truist Financial lowered their target price on Ball from $78.00 to $73.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut their price target on Ball from $78.00 to $75.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $68.17.

Ball Trading Up 0.5 %

Shares of Ball stock traded up $0.25 during trading on Friday, hitting $54.50. 250,855 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,311,899. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 1.09 and a quick ratio of 0.82. The firm has a market capitalization of $16.27 billion, a P/E ratio of 4.12, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 0.93. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $57.93 and its 200 day moving average price is $61.67. Ball Co. has a 1-year low of $51.96 and a 1-year high of $71.32.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The company reported $0.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.87 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $3.08 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.13 billion. Ball had a net margin of 34.05% and a return on equity of 17.46%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down .9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.83 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Ball Co. will post 3.15 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ball Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 2nd were issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 2nd. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.47%. Ball’s dividend payout ratio is presently 6.03%.

Ball 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.