Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) Shares Sold by AlphaQuest LLC

AlphaQuest LLC lowered its stake in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 49.5% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 5,889 shares of the company’s stock after selling 5,773 shares during the period. AlphaQuest LLC’s holdings in Ball were worth $325,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the stock. GSA Capital Partners LLP raised its position in shares of Ball by 6.8% during the third quarter. GSA Capital Partners LLP now owns 9,519 shares of the company’s stock worth $646,000 after purchasing an additional 608 shares during the period. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. increased its stake in Ball by 0.4% in the 3rd quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 692,380 shares of the company’s stock worth $47,020,000 after purchasing an additional 2,762 shares in the last quarter. KBC Group NV lifted its stake in Ball by 402.1% during the third quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 265,261 shares of the company’s stock valued at $18,014,000 after buying an additional 212,430 shares in the last quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC lifted its stake in Ball by 5.0% during the third quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC now owns 14,898 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,012,000 after buying an additional 712 shares in the last quarter. Finally, ING Groep NV acquired a new position in shares of Ball in the third quarter worth about $2,757,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.51% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently commented on BALL shares. Morgan Stanley reduced their price target on shares of Ball from $75.00 to $70.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Barclays reduced their target price on Ball from $72.00 to $61.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 6th. 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. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price objective on Ball from $75.00 to $66.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company restated an “underweight” rating and set a $49.00 price objective (down from $56.00) on shares of Ball in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $64.64.

Ball Stock Performance

BALL stock opened at $51.91 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $52.64 and a two-hundred day moving average of $58.85. Ball Co. has a 12 month low of $48.95 and a 12 month high of $71.32. The company has a market capitalization of $14.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 4.10, a P/E/G ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 0.99. The company has a quick ratio of 0.69, a current ratio of 1.00 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.84 earnings per share (EPS) 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 firm had revenue of $2.88 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.92 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.78 earnings per share. Ball’s revenue for the quarter was down .8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Ball Co. will post 3.48 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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

Ball Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Investors of record on Monday, March 3rd will be paid a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.54%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 3rd. Ball’s payout ratio is 6.32%.

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.