California Public Employees Retirement System Sells 61,890 Shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

California Public Employees Retirement System lowered its position in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 10.7% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 515,036 shares of the company’s stock after selling 61,890 shares during the period. California Public Employees Retirement System’s holdings in Ball were worth $28,394,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of BALL. Park Avenue Securities LLC increased its holdings in shares of Ball by 2.1% in the fourth quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC now owns 10,082 shares of the company’s stock worth $556,000 after buying an additional 210 shares during the period. Picton Mahoney Asset Management lifted its position in Ball by 68.9% in the fourth quarter. Picton Mahoney Asset Management now owns 522 shares of the company’s stock valued at $29,000 after purchasing an additional 213 shares during the last quarter. Jag Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Ball by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. Jag Capital Management LLC now owns 26,729 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,474,000 after purchasing an additional 271 shares during the period. Crumly & Associates Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Ball by 3.3% in the fourth quarter. Crumly & Associates Inc. now owns 9,050 shares of the company’s stock worth $499,000 after purchasing an additional 293 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Exchange Traded Concepts LLC increased its stake in shares of Ball by 14.7% in the fourth quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 2,631 shares of the company’s stock worth $145,000 after buying an additional 337 shares during the period. 86.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have weighed in on BALL. Robert W. Baird dropped their price target on shares of Ball from $70.00 to $63.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Citigroup cut their target price on Ball from $69.00 to $59.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Truist Financial lowered their price target on Ball from $78.00 to $73.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Barclays cut their price objective on Ball from $72.00 to $61.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, UBS Group decreased their target price on Ball from $60.00 to $55.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 13th. 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 stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $63.30.

Ball Trading Down 3.5 %

NYSE:BALL opened at $50.46 on Friday. Ball Co. has a one year low of $48.95 and a one year high of $71.32. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $51.95 and its 200 day simple moving average is $57.60. The firm has a market capitalization of $14.25 billion, a P/E ratio of 3.99, a PEG 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 (NYSE:BALL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.84 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.81 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $2.88 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.92 billion. Ball had a return on equity of 16.17% and a net margin of 33.98%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down .8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.78 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that Ball Co. will post 3.48 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ball Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Investors of record on Monday, March 3rd were paid a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.59%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 3rd. Ball’s payout ratio is 6.32%.

Ball declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock repurchase program on Wednesday, January 29th that permits the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the company to purchase up to 24.2% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are typically a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

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.