Ball Target of Unusually Large Options Trading (NYSE:BALL)

Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) saw unusually large options trading activity on Tuesday. Investors purchased 13,500 put options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 456% compared to the average volume of 2,428 put options.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price target on Ball from $74.00 to $82.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, April 29th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on shares of Ball from $65.00 to $69.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, April 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of Ball from $59.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 1st. Wolfe Research started coverage on shares of Ball in a report on Friday, March 1st. They issued a “peer perform” rating on the stock. Finally, Truist Financial lifted their target price on shares of Ball from $60.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, April 29th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Ball presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $69.23.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Pedro Henrique Mariani sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $69.90, for a total value of $349,500.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 9,844 shares in the company, valued at $688,095.60. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 0.81% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ball

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Independence Bank of Kentucky purchased a new stake in Ball during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $47,000. Wetzel Investment Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in Ball during the fourth quarter valued at $43,000. Friedenthal Financial bought a new stake in Ball in the 4th quarter valued at $43,000. NBC Securities Inc. lifted its stake in Ball by 31.0% in the 4th quarter. NBC Securities Inc. now owns 769 shares of the company’s stock worth $44,000 after purchasing an additional 182 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Salem Investment Counselors Inc. bought a new position in shares of Ball during the 4th quarter valued at about $57,000. 86.51% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Ball Trading Down 6.3 %

NYSE:BALL opened at $62.26 on Wednesday. Ball has a one year low of $42.81 and a one year high of $71.32. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $67.88 and a 200-day moving average price of $63.12. The firm has a market capitalization of $19.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 4.68, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.81 and a beta of 0.90. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.75, a current ratio of 1.21 and a quick ratio of 0.93.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, April 26th. The company reported $0.68 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.56 by $0.12. Ball had a return on equity of 21.79% and a net margin of 31.42%. The business had revenue of $2.87 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.23 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.69 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 17.6% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts forecast that Ball will post 3.09 EPS for the current year.

Ball Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 3rd were paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.28%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 3rd. Ball’s payout ratio is 6.02%.

Ball announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback program on Wednesday, April 24th that allows the company to repurchase 40,000,000 shares. This repurchase authorization allows the company to buy shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are often a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is 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.