EntryPoint Capital LLC Makes New $404,000 Investment in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

EntryPoint Capital LLC bought a new stake in shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund bought 7,332 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $404,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the business. Everence Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in Ball during the fourth quarter valued at $774,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new position in Ball during the 4th quarter valued at about $94,861,000. Loring Wolcott & Coolidge Fiduciary Advisors LLP MA increased its holdings in shares of Ball by 531,933.3% in the 4th quarter. Loring Wolcott & Coolidge Fiduciary Advisors LLP MA now owns 47,883 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,707,000 after purchasing an additional 47,874 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Ball by 2.0% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,891,046 shares of the company’s stock worth $104,253,000 after purchasing an additional 36,809 shares in the last quarter. Finally, VisionPoint Advisory Group LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Ball by 99.5% during the fourth quarter. VisionPoint Advisory Group LLC now owns 37,719 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,053,000 after purchasing an additional 18,809 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.51% of the company’s stock.

Ball Stock Down 0.8 %

Shares of Ball stock opened at $50.37 on Wednesday. Ball Co. has a 12-month low of $48.95 and a 12-month high of $71.32. The company has a quick ratio of 0.69, a current ratio of 1.00 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $52.34 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $58.16. The stock has a market capitalization of $14.22 billion, a P/E ratio of 3.98, a PEG ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 0.99.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.84 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.81 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $2.88 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.92 billion. Ball had a net margin of 33.98% and a return on equity of 16.17%. Ball’s quarterly revenue was down .8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.78 EPS. Equities analysts expect that Ball Co. will post 3.48 earnings per share for the current 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 paid a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.59%. Ball’s payout ratio is presently 6.32%.

Ball announced that its board has initiated a share buyback plan on Wednesday, January 29th that allows the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the company to reacquire up to 24.2% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are often a sign that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have issued reports on BALL. Morgan Stanley cut their target price 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. Citigroup reduced their price objective on 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 cut their price target on Ball from $78.00 to $73.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 6th. UBS Group lowered their price target on Ball from $60.00 to $55.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada cut their price objective on shares of Ball from $75.00 to $66.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, five have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $63.30.

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.